implicit variable declaration and access

[Tom Anderson]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, Ali Razavi wrote:

> Tom Anderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, Ali Razavi wrote:
>> 
>>> Is there any reflective facility in python that I can use to define a 
>>> variable with a name stored in another variable ?
>>> 
>>> like I have :
>>> x = "myVarName"
>>> 
>>> what can I do to declare a new variable with the name of the string stored 
>>> in x. And how can I access that implicitly later ?
>> 
>> Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?
>
> Have you ever heard of meta programming ? I guess if you had, it 
> wouldn't seem this odd to you.

Oh, i have. It's just that i've also seen about a billion posts from 
novice programmers asking exactly that question, when it turns out what 
they really want is a dictionary, or sometimes a list. If that was the 
case, answering your question would not be solving your problem, an i'd 
rather solve your problem.

If it's not, try:

x = "myVarName"
y = "myVarValue"
locals()[x] = y

What did you mean by "And how can I access that implicitly later?"?

tom

-- 
I content myself with the Speculative part [...], I care not for the Practick. I seldom bring any thing to use, 'tis not my way. Knowledge is my ultimate end. -- Sir Nicholas Gimcrack