title: Python variable does not contain any data
body: <p>I'm hoping this is a simple stupid problem. But we have an in-house program that is no longer working. The program is not able to pass the data which is supposed to be contained in a variable using var_name+="".</p>
  
  <p>The variable seemingly contains nothing. when I try to print the contents of this variable to either a string or text doc, we get nothing. The variable in question here is "allData".</p>
  
  <p>The contents of this variable need to be passed to our fax appliance. </p>
  
  <pre><code>def sendFax(destOrg, destFax, cliName, casenum, attachments, errEAddr, comment, destName):
      creds=requests.auth.HTTPBasicAuth(user,password)
  
      #OVERRIDE OUTBOUND FAX NUMBER FOR TESTING
      destFax='716-631-9804'
      print("faxes will be sent to "+destFax)
      return
  
  allData=''
  allData+='&lt;schedule_fax&gt;\n'
  
  allData+='&lt;cover_page&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;url&gt;'+prepXMLString(coverPage)+'&lt;/url&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;enabled&gt;true&lt;/enabled&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;subject&gt;'+prepXMLString(cliName)+' - case # '+str(casenum)+'&lt;/subject&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;comments&gt;'+prepXMLString(comment)+'&lt;/comments&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;/cover_page&gt;\n'
  
  allData+='&lt;sender&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;name&gt;'+prepXMLString(webAddr)+'&lt;/name&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;organization&gt;'+prepXMLString(ourOrg)+'&lt;/organization&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;phone_number&gt;'+prepXMLString(ourPhonenum)+'&lt;/phone_number&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;fax_number&gt;'+prepXMLString(ourFaxnum)+'&lt;/fax_number&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;email_address&gt;'+prepXMLString(errEAddr)+'&lt;/email_address&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;/sender&gt;\n'
  
  allData+='&lt;recipient&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;name&gt;'+prepXMLString(destName)+'&lt;/name&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;organization&gt;'+prepXMLString(destOrg)+'&lt;/organization&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;fax_number&gt;'+destFax+'&lt;/fax_number&gt;\n'
  allData+='&lt;/recipient&gt;\n'
  </code></pre>