How to avoid using global variables?

Question

I use global variables but I've read that they aren't a good practice or pythonic. I often use functions that give as a result many yes/no variables that I need to use in the main function. For example, how can I write the following code without using global variables?

def secondary_function():
    global alfa_is_higher_than_12
    global beta_is_higher_than_12

    alfa = 12
    beta = 5

    if alfa > 10:
        alfa_is_higher_than_12 = "yes"
    else:
        alfa_is_higher_than_12 = "no"

    if beta > 10:
        beta_is_higher_than_12 = "yes"
    else:
        beta_is_higher_than_12 = "no"

def main_function():
    global alfa_is_higher_than_12
    global beta_is_higher_than_12

    secondary_function()

    if alfa_is_higher_than_12=="yes":
        print("alfa is higher than 12")
    else:
        print("alfa isn't higher than 12")

    if beta_is_higher_than_12=="yes":
        print("beta is higher than 12")
    else:
        print("beta isn't higher thant 12")

main_function()

Answer 1

One could ask what reasons you might have to structure your code like this, but assuming you have your reasons, you could just return the values from your secondary function:

def secondary_function():

  alfa = 12
  beta = 5

  if alfa > 10:
      alfa_is_higher_than_12 = "yes"
  else:
      alfa_is_higher_than_12 = "no"

  if beta > 10:
      beta_is_higher_than_12 = "yes"
  else:
      beta_is_higher_than_12 = "no"

  return alfa_is_higher_than_12, beta_is_higher_than_12


def main_function():

  alfa_is_higher_than_12, beta_is_higher_than_12 = secondary_function()

  if alfa_is_higher_than_12=="yes":
      print("alfa is higher than 12")
  else:
      print("alfa isn't higher than 12")

  if beta_is_higher_than_12=="yes":
      print("beta is higher than 12")
  else:
      print("beta isn't higher thant 12")