Dangerous global variables Low

Global variables can be dangerous and cause bugs because they can be simultaneously accessed from multiple sections of a program. Most global variable bugs are caused when one function reading and acting on the value of a global variable before another function has the chance to set it to an appropriate value. We recommend using a configuration module to mutate global state.

Detector ID
python/dangerous-global-variables@v1.0
Category
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) external icon
-

Noncompliant example

1def dangerous_global_noncompliant(w):
2    # Noncompliant: uses global variable, which can be accessed
3    # from multiple sections.
4    global width
5    width = w

Compliant example

1def dangerous_global_compliant(w):
2    # Compliant: avoids using global variables, restricting
3    # the scope to this method.
4    width = w
5    return width