how do you get the name of a dictionary?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 08:56:54 +0200, Fredrik Lundh wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> 
>> But an upside is that it would enable more useful error messages, at least
>> sometimes. Here's some trivial pseudo-code:
>> 
>> def foo(a):
>>     assert len(a) > 10, "%s is too short" % a.__name__
>> 
>> y = "hello"
>> foo(y)
>> 
>> would display "AssertionError: y is too short".
> 
> why not "a is too short" ?
> 
> or for that matter, "x is to short" ?

These are all valid responses too. But consider that when you get an
exception that says "a is too short", you often have to mentally change
gears and think about where a came from and what it is called in the
enclosing scope. After all, if the value of a is invalid, and the value of
a is set in the enclosing scope, it makes sense to refer to "the object
known locally as a" by the name it was known as when it was set.

Of course, this leads to greater complexity, it still doesn't deal well
with objects known by multiple names, or no name at all, and it would
require a lot of overhead for something which is only of value
occasionally. In other words, the downside outweighs the upside
significantly.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano