PyQGIS function not working

Question

I'm trying to create variable with a certain function (see code below). When I run get_cloud() and print cloud from the console, it says:

NameError: name 'cloud' is not defined

When I run the for loop outside the function, it works just fine.

def get_cloud():
   for layer in iface.legendInterface().layers():
        if "cloud" in layer.name():
            cloud = layer
        else:
            pass

Answer 1

One way is to return the layer in your function and call this when you run it:

def get_cloud():
    for layer in iface.legendInterface().layers():
        if "cloud" in layer.name():
            cloud = layer
    return cloud

Then run the following to get the layer:

cloud = get_cloud()

Now you should be able to print cloud.

Answer 2

I try to understand why you make cloud variable global. @Joseph didn't mention that in his answer, which is correct. I guess you can simply write, it does nothing if your layer is not named cloud:

def get_cloud():
    for layer in iface.legendInterface().layers():
        if "cloud" in layer.name():
            return layer

cloud = get_cloud()

Answer 3

@Joseph

It seems working. Thanks!. I rewrote my function according to Joseph's solution below. I put cloud = get_cloud() inside my function because I need to connect the function with a signal in my full script. I also set the cloud variable to global cloud because my QGIS did not respond without this being set first.

def get_cloud():
    for layer in iface.legendInterface().layers():
            if "cloud" in layer.name():
                cloud = layer
            else:
                pass
    return cloud
    global cloud
    cloud = get_cloud()