How to use event.value for another function outside of the main loop?

Question

Below is a working skeleton of my actual code. What I am attempting to do is to obtain the JOYAXISMOTION, event.value, y so that I can use it in different function outside of the loop. I have already defined the variable y.

import time
import sys
import pygame
import subprocess
import random


from pygame.locals import *
pygame.init()

y = 0

def get_percent_change(current, previous):
    if current == previous:
        return 0
    try:
        return ((float(current) - float(previous)) /abs(previous)) * 100.0
    except ZeroDivisionError:
        return float('inf')

def sendCommands():
    time.sleep(5)
    print('Hello World')

pygame.joystick.init()
joysticks = [pygame.joystick.Joystick(i) for i in range(pygame.joystick.get_count())]
for joystick in joysticks:
    print(joystick.get_name())

game_state = False
run = True

while run:
    for event in pygame.event.get():

        if event.type == JOYBUTTONDOWN:
            print(event)

            if game_state == False and event.button == 8:
                game_state = True

            if event.button == 4:
                game_state = False

        if event.type == JOYHATMOTION:
            if event.value[0] == 1 or event.value[0] == -1:
                game_state = False

        if event.type == JOYAXISMOTION:
            if event.axis == 4:
                current = event.value
                y = get_percent_change(current, -1.0001)
                print(y)

        if event.type == JOYDEVICEADDED:
            joysticks = [pygame.joystick.Joystick(i) for i in range(pygame.joystick.get_count())]
            for joystick in joysticks:
                print(joystick.get_name())
        if event.type == JOYDEVICEREMOVED:
            joysticks = [pygame.joystick.Joystick(i) for i in range(pygame.joystick.get_count())]


    if game_state == True:
        sendCommands()

pygame.quit()
sys.exit()

The main problem I am running into is the time.sleep(5) that the sendCommands requires. It is blocking the script while sleeping. I have tried asyncio with no success. Threading is also very confusing to me here. I have also tried the delay logic in the answer provided to a closely related question here but that also blocks the code from running.

Allow me to pick your brain on how:

1. I can run the script without it being blocked
2. and how I can access and use the event.value, y outside of the loop

Answer 1

To use y outside of the loop, you could declare it as global but a better alternative is to make a function to get the value. You can implement a timer to execute your subprocess every 5 seconds instead of blocking the entire thread. The following code prints None every 5 seconds for me since I don't have any controllers connected but I think it will work for you.

import time
import sys
import pygame
from pygame.locals import *

pygame.init()

def sendCommands(waitTime, y):
    global sendCommandsStart
    #count how many seconds have passed since sendCommandsStart
    #variable was last updated
    if time.time() - sendCommandsStart > waitTime:
        sendCommandsStart = time.time() #reset the timer
        print(y)#call your subpreocess here

def getJoyStickY(events):
     for event in events:
         if event.type == JOYAXISMOTION:
            if event.axis == 4:
                return get_percent_change(current, -1.0001)
     return None

pygame.joystick.init()
run = True

sendCommandsStart = time.time() #get the current time - its just a number (time since last epoh)

while run:
    allEvents = pygame.event.get()
    sendCommands(5, getJoyStickY(allEvents))

    
pygame.quit()
sys.exit()