[Tutor] creating variables at runtime

[Kirby Urner]

>
>Is such a thing possible? Is it Bad and Wrong?
>
>I'm a relatively raw newcomer using Py 2.1 under windows
>
>
>David

You can do it, and many do, but I always advise that it's
safer and easier to use a dictionary to hold user-created
objects.  For example:

   class Thing:
       def __init__(self, name):
          self.myname = name

   def getuser():
        global userobjs
        while 1:
          objname = raw_input("Gimme an object (or q to quit) > ")
          if not objname in ['q','Q']:
              userobjs[objname] = Thing(objname)
          else:
              break


In the shell (or from a script):

   >>> userobjs = {}
   >>> getuser()
   Gimme an object (or q to quit) > NARF
   Gimme an object (or q to quit) > q
   >>> userobjs
   {'NARF': <__main__.Thing instance at 0x0113E4F0>}
   >>> obj = userobjs['NARF']
   >>> obj.myname
   'NARF'

If you user wants to interact with the objects she or he
named, then you simply have your code look it up by name
in the userobjs dictionary, where they'll all be together.

Kirby