title: python: is there anyway to initialize a variable only one time?
body: <p>I want to do matching my time-series data to meta data from a given file.</p>
  
  <p>In my code, main function calls "create_match()" function every 1 minute. Inside "create_match(), there is a "list_from_file()" function to read data from file and store in lists to perform matching. </p>
  
  <p>The problem is that my code is not effective since every 1 minute, it reads the file and rewrite in the same lists. I want to read file only one time (to initialize lists only one time), and after that ignoring the "list_from_file()" function. I do not want to just move this task to main function and pass lists through function.</p>
  
  <p>Does python have a special variable like static variable in c programming?</p>