why won't this counter work?

[max.yevs]

so i was trying to make a very simple counter (although not sure if that's what you call it)

import time
a = 0
def main():
    time.sleep(5)
    b = a + 1
    print (b)
    del(a)
    a = b
    del(b)
    main()   
main()

i know this is very unefficient and there is probably some command to count, but why doesn't this work?

i thought for sure it would give me the next number every 5 seconds: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.

but apparently "a is referenced before assignment" which i don't see why it's a problem, because after the first reference a = 0, shouldn't it just loop...?

[max.yevs]

sorry i think i accidently double posted, i'll mark this thread as solved. (or maybe moderator can delete it?)

[jlm699]

You need to stop recursing your main function, it's going to get you in trouble. Here's an example using a while loop.

import time

def main():
    a = 0
    while True:
        print (a)
        time.sleep(5)
        a += 1
    
main()

EDIT: I didn't notice the other thread about this same problem, in which it is already solved.

[leegeorg07]

also you might want to add a return function(

import time

def main():
    a = 0
    while True:
        print (a)
        time.sleep(5)
        a += 1
        return a
    
main()

[jlm699]

also you might want to add a return function(

import time

def main():
    a = 0
    while True:
        print (a)
        time.sleep(5)
        a += 1
        return a
    
main()

This will exit the main function on the first iteration of the while loop. I would suggest that you do not do this.

[leegeorg07]

would it?, i never knew that, i guess ive got to edit a lot of code, that could be why they didnt do what i expected.

[max.yevs]

not sure what return does...
but thanks jim i've already adopted that counter from the other post...

and yeah, sorry for making two posts... i was editing the code brackets to code=python for python syntax and somehow it doubled :(