[Tutor] create and fill a list with exec?

[michaelbaker@operamail.com]

how can I create an empty list and then fill it with stuff at the time of 
creation or without calling it explicitly by name later?
 >>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__']
 >>> a=[1,2,3,4,5]
 >>> for b in a:
	exec 'buffer%s=[]' %b
	
 >>> dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'a', 'b', 'buffer1', 'buffer2', 
'buffer3', 'buffer4', 'buffer5']

I want to do someting like this:

 >>> a=[1,2,3,4,5]
 >>> for b in a:
	exec 'buffer%s=[], buffer%s.append(b)' %b

this doesn't work.

I could fill these lists later, but I'm not sure how to do that either:

 >>> for c in dir():
	for d in range(len(a)+1):
		if c=='buffer%s' %d:
			c.append(d)

			
Traceback (innermost last):
   File "<pyshell#27>", line 4, in ?
     c.append(d)
AttributeError: append

how can I make this work???
thanks tutors