Is 'Global' or 'Local' really required?

[abrogard 0]

I am just beginning.

I read that variables are declared with either 'local' or 'global' scope.

Then I read that scope depends upon location when declared:  if declared in a function they are 'local' if they are declared outside all functions they are 'global'.

Does that mean we can simply declare them without any scope specified?

[Subz 688]

Correct, although its best practice to declare scope and also prefix the variable with type of variable, although again not required

https://www.autoitscript.com/wiki/Best_coding_practices

[argumentum 565]

58 minutes ago, abrogard said:

I am just beginning.

@Subz link is important. Why?. Well, structuring your code will save you trouble in the future when you get more creative as you know more and your code ends up too big for a single file. You will end up writing UDFs to simplify the maintenance of the code as you add more stuff to it. So, yes, do declare what you know will be global and what you know will be local. Do it for your mental health  

[spudw2k 231]

As you probably understand about scopes at this point, you should also be aware now of how the scopes could be used to change how variables are accessible from other functions.  You can reassign/change the value a global (non-constant) variable within a function, not access other functions local scope variables, or define global variable within a function (though it is not best-practice).  

Variables declared outside of a function are inherently global, so I can understand why you might not care to distinguish which scope is defined. If you really don't want to declare variable scopes outside functions, that is up to you, but it's not a bad habit to get in to.  Having different rules for how you declare function variables versus variables outside of functions is unnecessary and may lead to confusion, IMHO.