title: Inability to pass values in variable between inner and outer for loops python 3.3
body: <p>I'm attempting utilizing TeamTreehouse learning subscription &amp; this Starting Out With Programming Logic And Design book to attempt learning programming &amp; python. Please don't shoot to kill me I'm having difficulty with repetition structures!</p>
  
  <p>Goal: I'm attempting to collect input from a user in the outer for loop. The inner loop will iterate 12 times per outer loop iteration calculating; getting for rainfall of each month. The outer loop will then; display the number of months, total inches of rainfall and the average rainfall per month for the whole time period (1 or 7 etc years). </p>
  
  <p>I'm reading on passing values by reference or by value to find that python has mutable and immutable data types (which int is an immutable data type) so I can't simply pass the data between for loops from my understanding. How then do I get this to function? I had a list suggested to me though I don't understand how to get an average out of a list because frankly it hasn't been covered on teamTreehouse or in chapter 4 of my book so far.
  <a href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming/Data_Types" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming/Data_Types</a></p>
  
  <p>Error: Inability to get data transferred from internal nested loop variable rainTotal to the outer loop rainTotal. </p>
  
  <p>CODE:</p>
  
  <pre><code>#//////MAIN PROGRAM START//////
  
  #//////VARIABLE DECLARATION//////
  totalMonths=0
  rainAverage=0
  rainFall=0
  rainTotal=0
  #//////VARIABLE DECLARATION//////
  
  #//////USER INPUT FUNCTION//////
  def userInput():
      years=0
      months=12
  #////don't understand how to function properly
  #    monthly_rain = []
  #////don't understand how to function properly
      print('This program will calculate the average rainfall over a period of years.')
      years=int(input("Please provide the number of years to calculate rainfall for."))
      for i in range(1, years + 1):
      #////////////////testing variable values correct////////////////
      #Placeholder
      #////////////////testing variable values correct////////////////
  #//////USER INPUT FUNCTION//////
          for i in range(1, months + 1):
              rainTotal=int()
              monthlyRainFall=int(input("Please provide the rainfall in inches for month number " + str(i) + str(": ")))
  #////don't understand how to function properly
  #            monthly_rain.append(monthlyRainFall)
  #////don't understand how to function properly
              rainTotal = rainTotal + monthlyRainFall
              rainAverage=rainTotal/months
              #//////testing variable &lt;&gt; value assignment/////
  #///////// python code references/////////////
  #            print('Calculating for a total number of', totalMonths, 'months.')
  #            print('Months\t\t\t' + 'Average Rainfall')        
  #            print(rain, '\t\t\t\t\t', i)
  #/////////format references/////////////
      print("There was a total of ", (years*months), "months calculated.")
      print("The accumulative total of rainfall was ", rainTotal, " inches!")
      print("Average Rainfall per month:", rainTotal/(years*months))
  # after the inner loop runs the following should display
  
  #//////CALLING FUNCTION//////
  userInput()
  #//////CALLING FUNCTION//////
  </code></pre>