idiom for constructor?

[Steven Bethard]

Peter Dembinski wrote:
>class A:
>    def __init__(self, a, b, c, d):
>        initial = {'a' : a, 'b' : b, 'c' : c, 'd' : d}
>        for param in initial.keys():
>            exec "self.%s = initial['%s']" % (param, param)

This is not a good use case for exec.  Use setattr:

for param in initial:
     setattr(self, param, initial[param])

Or better yet, just update the instance dict:

self.__dict__.update(initial)

But this misses the OP's point.  The issues was that the OP didn't want 
to write a, b, c and d again.  Not only does this proposal make you 
write them again, it makes you write them again twice!

STeVe