Creating static function in Python using variables outside

Question

I need to create a set of similar static functions in python. This involves variables outside the function that I want to use as hard-coded values when a function is created. However, functions created this way remain linked to variables and change dynamically:

def repeat_n():
 res = []
 for _ in range(n):
 res.append(1)
 return res
n = 3
repeat_three = repeat_n
repeat_three()
n =+ 1
# repeats four times
repeat_three()

• juanpa.arrivillaga: repeat_three = repeat_n doesn't create a new function. It's the same function
• chepner: Even if it did copy the function, it wouldn't replace n with the value of n at the time of the copy. n is a free variable, whose value is looked up when you call the function.

Answer 1

Assignment never creates a copy in Python, so repeat_three = repeat_n doesn't create a new function, it merely assigns the same function object to another variable.

It looks like you just want a function factory:

def repeat_factory(n):
 def repeat():
 res = []
 for _ in range(n):
 res.append(1)
 return res
 return repeat
repeat_3 = repeat_factory(3)
repeat_4 = repeat_factory(4)

• user71111: thank you! this works indeed n = 3 def repeat_factory(n): def repeat(): res = [] for _ in range(n): res.append(1) return res return repeat repeat_3 = repeat_factory(n) n+=1 repeat_3()