Why does this produce a nameError?

Question

Running this code produces a nameError saying ret is not defined. Why does the ret work in the if action == 'state' block but not in the elif action == list block?

if action == 'stat':
   ret = pp.stat()
   print ret
   sys.exit()
elif action == 'list':
  for i in range(1, ret[0]+1):
      mlist = pp.top(i, 0)
      print 'line: ', len(mlist[1])
  ret = pp.list()
  print ret

Answer 1

if action == 'stat' is false then ret never gets defined

so when the elif is executed then ret is never defined

Answer 2

You are referencing ret before the variable is instanciated in the for loop. Move ret = pp.list() up before the for loop, and you'll be ok.

elif action == 'list':
  ret = pp.list()
  for i in range(1, ret[0]+1):
      mlist = pp.top(i, 0)
      print 'line: ', len(mlist[1])
  print ret