generating unique variable name via loops

[Peter Otten]

Fatih Güven wrote:

> I want to generate a unique variable name for list using python.
> 
> list1=...
> list2=...
> .
> .
> .
> listx=... where x is a number.
> 
> You can remember it from saving a file in a directory. If you have already
> created a "new file", save dialog sugget that <<"new file " is already
> exist, do you want to save it as "new file (1)"?>> so I want to apply it
> for list names.
> 
> Do you any idea about this.

Do you really want to use

list1, list2, list3, ... as variable names? You shouldn't. Instead use a 
dict or a list of lists:

>>> list_of_lists = []
>>> list_of_lists.append([1, 2, 3])
>>> list_of_lists.append(["a", "b", "c"])
>>> list_of_lists.append(["foo", "bar", "baz"])

You can then access the second list with

>>> letters = list_of_lists[1]
>>> print(letters)
['a', 'b', 'c']

On the other hand if you just want to generate names an easy to understand 
approach is to increment a global variable every time you invoke the name-
generating function:

>>> _index = 1
>>> def next_name():
...     global _index
...     name = "list{}".format(_index)
...     _index += 1
...     return name
... 
>>> next_name()
'list1'
>>> next_name()
'list2'
>>> next_name()
'list3'