Python variable - how to declare it? UnboundLocalError: local variable 'Counter' referenced before assignment

Question

I am starting on a Twitter bot and having a stupid problem declaring a variable, the code is very simple and stripped everything and it still does not work. When I run the code I get the following error message:

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'Counter' referenced before assignment

I have declared the variable as a global and in different location but still having the same problem.

global Counter

import tweepy, time

def search():
    Counter += 1
    print("Counter = " + Counter + "\n")
    time.sleep(60)

def run():
   search()

if __name__ == '__main__':
   print "Running"f
   while True:
       run()

`global Counter = 0`. You have not assigned any value to `Counter` — sinsuren, Aug 06 '17 at 08:28
You need to declare the counter global *where you use it*. There's no point putitng a `global` keyword in the global namespace. — Daniel Roseman, Aug 06 '17 at 08:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '17 at 08:32

global should be used only within limited scopes (like a function) to indicate that you want Counter to reference the global object and not the local one.

Also, you need to initialize Counter with some value:

import tweepy, time

Counter = 0

def search():
    global Counter
    Counter += 1
    print("Counter = " + Counter + "\n")
    time.sleep(60)

def run():
   search()

if __name__ == '__main__':
   print "Running"
   while True:
       run()

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '17 at 08:36

0

global statement tells the code inside the block, to use a global variable context and not local one.

You still need to initialize this variable before addressing it.

answered Aug 06 '17 at 08:36

Chen A.

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Python variable - how to declare it? UnboundLocalError: local variable 'Counter' referenced before assignment

2 Answers2