self variables not being stored in python?

Question

I'm declaring self variables in my program regularly:

def __init__(self):
    self.x = dict()

And later on in my code (the first function that is called), I assigned a value to self.x. However later on when I try to actually use self.x in later functions, self.x prints out as {}. Even though I know for sure that I am assigning it correctly and that my data is sound.

Bit of a python noob here, is there anything I may be missing? Should I declare these variables as global since maybe I am losing scope in the way my program is written?

Thanks

Answer 1

It's hard to answer your question without seeing the rest of your code (I will edit this post when you give more information), but maybe I can give you some insight into what might be the problem. Your functions should probably look something like those shown in the class below:

class Foo:
    def __init__(self):
        self.x = dict()

    def add(self):
        self.x[1] = 'a'  # add something to our dict

    def redefine(self):
        self.x = {2:'b', 3:'c'}  # reassign our dict

So to see that everything is in order:

foo = Foo()
print foo.x
foo.add()
print foo.x
foo.redefine()
print foo.x

Output:

{}
{1: 'a'}
{2: 'b', 3: 'c'}