Simple question - stock market simulation

[cptn.spoon]

On Feb 10, 10:26 am, Robert Kern <robert.k... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2009-02-09 17:10, cptn.spoon wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Feb 9, 6:48 pm, "Hendrik van Rooyen"<m... at microcorp.co.za>  wrote:
> >> "cptn.spoon"<cp...... at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
> >> On Feb 9, 3:58 pm, Paul Rubin<http://phr...@NOSPAM.invalid>  wrote:
>
> >>> Thanks Paul! I thought this might be the case. So how would I get the
> >>> StockMarket class instance to contain many Stock class instances and
> >>> then be able to iterate through them? I'm guessing the basic structure
> >>> would be as follows...but I think I'm wrong:
> >>> class StockMarket:
> >>>   pass
> >> No.
> >> At this level, just use a list of instances of your Stock class.
>
> >> - Hendrik
>
> > How do I get a list of instances of a particular class? Is there a way
> > to do this dynamically?
>
> You *can*, but I highly recommend that you don't. Instead, just keep your own
> list of instances. When you make a new instance, just append it to the list (see
> below).
>
>    all_stocks = []
>
> > Also, what would be the way of dynamically creating an instance of a
> > class based on user input (ie a user wants to create a new instance of
> > the Stock class via shell input)?
>
> Define an __init__ method on your class to initialize it from given values. Use
> raw_input() to query the user for information. Convert the text input to
> whatever objects your class needs (e.g. if the user entered "10" on the prompt,
> x=raw_input() will return the string '10', so you would do int(x) to get the
> integer 10). Now, instantiate your class with the arguments:
>
>    the_stock = Stock(name, risk, initial_price)
>
> And append it to your list of stocks.
>
>    all_stocks.append(the_stock)
>
> --
> Robert Kern
>
> "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
>   that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
>   an underlying truth."
>    -- Umberto Eco

That's exactly what I was after. Thanks Robert!