I use this pattern frequently across different projects and would like to keep it here for reference.

Python doesn’t have C-style static variables natively. (Although it supports class variables, which can be used for a similar purpose in OOP.) However, since functions are also objects in Python, it’s possible to embed variables inside the function. An elegant solution on Stack Overflow creates a decorator for static variables.

def static_vars(**kwargs):
    def decorate(func):
        for k in kwargs:
            setattr(func, k, kwargs[k])
        return func
    return decorate

@static_vars(counter=0)
def foo():
    foo.counter += 1
    print(f"Counter is {foo.counter}")