I came across an example of a factory function similar to this
def my_factory(a):
def my_factory_function(b):
return b ** a
return my_factory_function
Given this code the function, my_factory_function may be accessed in this manner...
>>> f = my_factory(2)
>>> print f
<function my_factory.<locals>.action at 0xwhatever>
Now I'm completely onboard here but am confused by what happens next...
>>> f(3)
9
So in this step it manages to square the value 3 or evaluate the code return 3 ** 2
Finally, what Im wondering about is how the nested function managed to retain state information about the value of a. This was initially defined when I called f = my_factory(2) but I'd imagine the value would've gone out of scope by the point I'm calling the nested function. Does this mean that any instance in which a function is stored as a variable that functions state information is stored along with it?
