Your problem is that Python works not the way you think.
So I will try to explain what's going on in your code, line by line.
mouse = "a"
Assigns the string "a" to the name mouse
.
background = "b"
Assigns the string "b" to the name background
.
list_ab = [mouse, background]
Assigns two objects, referenced by names mouse
and background
, to the list list_ab
.
As we already know, they are constants "a" and "b". So you can just write:
list_ab = ["a", "b"]
Now the loop
for item in list_ab:
assigns each object in the list to the name item
.
For the first loop iteration, it means item = "a"
.
The line
global item # I want to modify the GLOBAL item, which is mouse ad background
doesn't make sense, because it tries to tell Python that the name item
is global, while there is no such global variable declared.
And for the most confusing behavior on the line
item = "modified"
you should just understand that while it assigns the string "modified" to the name item
, strings "a" and "b" are still the same, and still assigned to the list list_ab
(and names mouse
and background
, which you didn't touch either).
The name item
itself lives only in the scope where it was declared, when the "for" loop ends, it's destructed.
It is also reassigned every iteration with the next item from the list_ab
.
To sum it up:
If you want to assign "modified" string to the items in the list, do it directly:
list_ab[0] = "modified"
list_ab[1] = "modified"
If you need to change variable declared in the global scope, do this:
mouse = "a"
def func():
global mouse # tell Python that you want to work with global variable
mouse = "modified"
func()
print mouse # now mouse is "modified"
Example based on the first revision of the question:
Instead of
background = g_base("bg.jpg") # g_base class instance
mouse = g_base("mouse.png",alpha=1) # g_base class instance
imgs_to_load = [mouse, background]
def Image_loader (img):
# ..... code to load the image and convert it into pygame surface...
return img_load
def main ():
for image in img_to_load:
global image
image = Image_loader (img)
print image # if I print image, it is a pygame surface
print background # But here, outside the loop, image is still a g_base instance ?!?!
print mouse # " "
main()
You can do:
imgs_to_load = [g_base("bg.jpg"), g_base("mouse.png",alpha=1)] # list with a g_base class instances
def Image_loader(img):
# ..... code to load the image and convert it into pygame surface...
return img_load
def main ():
imgs_in_pygame_format = [] # create an empty list
for image in imgs_to_load:
loaded_image = Image_loader(image)
imgs_in_pygame_format.append(loaded_image) # add to the list
for image in imgs_in_pygame_format:
print image # every image in the list is a pygame surface
# or
print image[0]
print image[1]
main()
Or if you want to reference to images by name, you can put them into dictionary:
imgs_to_load = {}
imgs_to_load["bg"] = g_base("bg.jpg")
imgs_to_load["mouse"] = g_base("mouse.png",alpha=1)
imgs_in_pygame_format = {} # create a global dictionary for loaded images
def main ():
global imgs_in_pygame_format # import that global name into the local scope for write access
for name, data in imgs_to_load.items():
imgs_in_pygame_format[name] = Image_loader(data) # add to the dictionary
for image in imgs_in_pygame_format:
print image # every image in the dictionary is a pygame surface
# or
print imgs_in_pygame_format["bg"]
print imgs_in_pygame_format["mouse"]
main()
But most importantly, global variables are bad idea. The better solution would be to use a class:
def Image_loader(img):
# ..... code to load the image and convert it into pygame surface...
return img_load
class Image:
def __init__(self, image):
self.data = Image_loader(image)
def main ():
bg = Image(g_base("bg.jpg"))
mouse = Image(g_base("mouse.png",alpha=1))
print bg.data
print mouse.data
main()
For more examples see Python Tutorial.
Hope it helps, and welcome to StackOverflow!