modifying a list element from a function

[Peter Otten]

TP wrote:

> Hi everybody,
> 
> Be a the following list, containing list elements which second field is a
> string.
> 
>>>> a = [ [4, "toto"], [5, "cou"] ]
>>>> a[0][1]="tou"
>>>> a
> [[4, 'tou'], [5, 'cou']]
> 
> OK.
> 
> Now, I want:
> * to do the same modification on the list "a" within a function
> * not to hardcode in this function the position of the string in each
> element of a.
> 
> At first sight, we think at defining a function like this:
> 
> def assign( text_accessor, list_elem, new_textvalue ):
> 
>     text_accessor( list_elem ) = new_textvalue
> 
> and then doing:
> 
> assign( lambda elem: elem[1], a[0], "co" )
> 
> But it does not work, we obtain:
> 
>     text_accessor( list_elem ) = new_textvalue
> SyntaxError: can't assign to function call
> 
> In fact, we should work on the address of text_accessor( list_elem ). How
> to do that?

You can understand Python to some extend if you liken its variables to
pointers, but here the analogy breaks: you cannot have pointers to
pointers. To parameterize list item access you can either pass the index or
a setter (and if needed a getter) function:

>>> a = [ [4, "toto"], [5, "cou"] ]
>>> def assign(setitem_n, items, value):
...     setitem_n(items, value)
...
>>> def setitem1(items, value):
...     items[1] = value
...
>>> assign(setitem1, a[0], "XX")
>>> a
[[4, 'XX'], [5, 'cou']]

Peter