Closure

Closures in Python are created by function calls. Here, the call to makeInc creates a binding for x that is referenced inside the function inc. Each call to makeInc creates a new instance of this function, but each instance has a link to a different binding of x.

def makeInc(x):
  def inc(y):
     # x is "attached" in the definition of inc
     return y + x

  return inc

incOne = makeInc(1)
incFive = makeInc(5)

incOne(5) # returns 6
incFive(5) # returns 10

Notice that while in a regular closure the enclosed function fully inherits all variables from its enclosing environment, in this construct the enclosed function has only read access to the inherited variables but cannot make assignments to them

def makeInc(x):
  def inc(y):
     # incrementing x is not allowed
     x += y  
     return x

  return inc

incOne = makeInc(1)
incOne(5) # UnboundLocalError: local variable 'x' referenced before assignment

Python 3 offers the nonlocal statement (http://stackoverflow.com/documentation/python/263/variable-scope-and-binding/5712/nonlocal-variables#t=201608272008282346874 ) for realizing a full closure with nested functions.

def makeInc(x):
  def inc(y):
     nonlocal x
     # now assigning a value to x is allowed
     x += y  
     return x

  return inc

incOne = makeInc(1)
incOne(5) # returns 6