Python: How to calculate a local variable in function_1 and send the result to function_2 without running function_1 every time function_2 is called?

I’m trying to design a card game with a ‘shuffle’ function and a ‘deal’ function. The problem I’m encountering is that every time I pass the results of ‘shuffle’ to ‘deal’, the cards are shuffled. I’m new to local variables… how can I pass the local variable from ‘shuffle’ to ‘deal’ when I only want the ‘shuffle’ effect calculated once?

Here is a simplified example of what I’ve tried:

import random

def shuffle():
    x = random.randrange(1, 11)
    return x

def deal():
    x = shuffle()
    print('\nx =', x)
    inpt = input('\nEnter anything to deal again, or x to quit: ')
    if inpt == 'x':
        quit()

while True:
    deal()

I want ‘deal’ to print out a consistent value of x, but instead it is shuffled for every iteration. How can I shuffle x just once so that x is printed as a consistent value?

*note: I know I could simplify this code by making it just one function, but I need help understanding how local variables move between functions. Thanks

>Solution :

It is because you have called shuffle from the deal method. Something like this should give you what you’re looking for.

import random

def shuffle():
    x = random.randrange(1, 11)
    return x

def deal(x):
    # x = shuffle()
    print('\nx =', x)
    inpt = input('\nEnter anything to deal again, or x to quit: ')
    if inpt == 'x':
        quit()

x = shuffle()

while True:
    deal(x)

Alternatively you could move the while True: into the deal method.

import random

def shuffle():
    x = random.randrange(1, 11)
    return x

def deal():
    x = shuffle()
    while True:
        print('\nx =', x)
        inpt = input('\nEnter anything to deal again, or x to quit: ')
        if inpt == 'x':
            quit()

deal()