Function variable scope in python

Question

let\'s say we have two functions:

def ftpConnect(): 
    ftp = FTP(\'server\')
    ftp.login()
    ftp.cwd(\'/path\')

def getFileList():
    ftpConnect()
    fi         


        

Answer 1

Functions can return values. Return values are cool!

Return ftp from ftpConnect():

def ftpConnect(): 
    ftp = FTP('server')
    ftp.login()
    ftp.cwd('/path')
    # return the value of `ftp` to the caller
    return ftp

def getFileList():
    # assign the return value of `ftpConnect` to a new local variable
    ftp = ftpConnect()
    files = ftp.nlst()
    print(ftp.nlst())

You may also want to look in to object-oriented programming techniques; define a class that handles all your FTP-related operations, and store the FTP server connection as an attribute of the instance.