Given the following code

a = 100
b = 200snip = '''
c = a+b
'''exec(snip)
print(c)

how can I pass values into exec, and get values out of exec, without using global scope? In effect, I want to be able to explicitly control the entire scope exec has access to.

Generally, global scope is used with exec

a = 100
b = 200snip = '''
c = a+b
'''exec(snip)
print(c)

However, this can be problematic in some use cases. exec allows you to pass in a dictionary defining the global scope, and receive a dictionary containing the local scope. Here's an example:

snip = '''
c = a+b
'''input_globals = {'a': 100, 'b': 2}
output_locals = {}exec(snip, input_globals, output_locals)
print(output_locals)

This results in the following output:

{'c': 102}

this effectively allows one to use exec "functionally", without working on and modifying global scope.

You can read this for more detail.