getting the name of a variable

[James_Althoff at i2.com]

Michael Hudson wrote:
>sandskyfly at hotmail.com (Sandy Norton) writes:
>> When I'm debugging I'm always sticking stuff like "print 'x:', x" in
>> my code.  So is there a handy function that will print a variable
>> name and value such that:
>>
>> >>> def print_var_name_and_value(var):
>>             "prints variable name : value"
>>             <implemention>
>>
>> >>> variable = 'me var'
>> >>> print_var_name_and_value(variable)
>> variable : me var
>
>Not really.  Hit google groups for more info.  Some highlights:
>
>a gross implementation attempt by me:
>
>
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=m38zytnexz.fsf%40atrus.jesus.cam.ac.uk
>
>a nice explanation of why this not really possible by /F:
>
>http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3a03261b_1%40corp.newsfeeds.com

It seems though, for the narrow purpose requested here, if you are willing
to turn things around and pass the *name* of the variable instead of its
value then -- using nested scopes -- one could write something like:

>>> def prvar(x):
...   print x, ':', eval(x)
...
>>> z = 1
>>> prvar('z')
z : 1
>>>

Might save a little bit of typing.

>>> def prvar(*varnames):
...   for name in varnames:
...     print name, ':', eval(name), ';',
...
>>> a = 1
>>> b = 2
>>> c = 3
>>> prvar('a','b','c')
a : 1 ; b : 2 ; c : 3 ;

Jim