How do I create a variable number of variables?

Question

How do I accomplish variable variables in Python?

Here is an elaborative manual entry, for instance: Variable variables

I have heard this is a bad idea in general though, and it is a security hole in Python. Is that true?

Answer 1

It's not a good idea. If you are accessing a global variable you can use globals().

>>> a = 10
>>> globals()['a']
10

If you want to access a variable in the local scope you can use locals(), but you cannot assign values to the returned dict.

A better solution is to use getattr or store your variables in a dictionary and then access them by name.

Answer 2

Instead of a dictionary you can also use namedtuple from the collections module, which makes access easier.

For example:

# using dictionary
variables = {}
variables["first"] = 34
variables["second"] = 45
print(variables["first"], variables["second"])

# using namedtuple
Variables = namedtuple('Variables', ['first', 'second'])
vars = Variables(34, 45)
print(vars.first, vars.second)

Answer 3

The consensus is to use a dictionary for this - see the other answers. This is a good idea for most cases, however, there are many aspects arising from this:

• you'll yourself be responsible for this dictionary, including garbage collection (of in-dict variables) etc.
• there's either no locality or globality for variable variables, it depends on the globality of the dictionary
• if you want to rename a variable name, you'll have to do it manually
• however, you are much more flexible, e.g.
  • you can decide to overwrite existing variables or ...
  • ... choose to implement const variables
  • to raise an exception on overwriting for different types
  • etc.

That said, I've implemented a variable variables manager-class which provides some of the above ideas. It works for python 2 and 3.

You'd use the class like this:

from variableVariablesManager import VariableVariablesManager

myVars = VariableVariablesManager()
myVars['test'] = 25
print(myVars['test'])

# define a const variable
myVars.defineConstVariable('myconst', 13)
try:
    myVars['myconst'] = 14 # <- this raises an error, since 'myconst' must not be changed
    print("not allowed")
except AttributeError as e:
    pass

# rename a variable
myVars.renameVariable('myconst', 'myconstOther')

# preserve locality
def testLocalVar():
    myVars = VariableVariablesManager()
    myVars['test'] = 13
    print("inside function myVars['test']:", myVars['test'])
testLocalVar()
print("outside function myVars['test']:", myVars['test'])

# define a global variable
myVars.defineGlobalVariable('globalVar', 12)
def testGlobalVar():
    myVars = VariableVariablesManager()
    print("inside function myVars['globalVar']:", myVars['globalVar'])
    myVars['globalVar'] = 13
    print("inside function myVars['globalVar'] (having been changed):", myVars['globalVar'])
testGlobalVar()
print("outside function myVars['globalVar']:", myVars['globalVar'])

If you wish to allow overwriting of variables with the same type only:

myVars = VariableVariablesManager(enforceSameTypeOnOverride = True)
myVars['test'] = 25
myVars['test'] = "Cat" # <- raises Exception (different type on overwriting)

Answer 4

New coders sometimes write code like this:

my_calculator.button_0 = tkinter.Button(root, text=0)
my_calculator.button_1 = tkinter.Button(root, text=1)
my_calculator.button_2 = tkinter.Button(root, text=2)
...

The coder is then left with a pile of named variables, with a coding effort of O(m * n), where m is the number of named variables and n is the number of times that group of variables needs to be accessed (including creation). The more astute beginner observes that the only difference in each of those lines is a number that changes based on a rule, and decides to use a loop. However, they get stuck on how to dynamically create those variable names, and may try something like this:

for i in range(10):
    my_calculator.('button_%d' % i) = tkinter.Button(root, text=i)

They soon find that this does not work.

If the program requires arbitrary variable "names," a dictionary is the best choice, as explained in other answers. However, if you're simply trying to create many variables and you don't mind referring to them with a sequence of integers, you're probably looking for a list. This is particularly true if your data are homogeneous, such as daily temperature readings, weekly quiz scores, or a grid of graphical widgets.

This can be assembled as follows:

my_calculator.buttons = []
for i in range(10):
    my_calculator.buttons.append(tkinter.Button(root, text=i))

This list can also be created in one line with a comprehension:

my_calculator.buttons = [tkinter.Button(root, text=i) for i in range(10)]

The result in either case is a populated list, with the first element accessed with my_calculator.buttons[0], the next with my_calculator.buttons[1], and so on. The "base" variable name becomes the name of the list and the varying identifier is used to access it.

Finally, don't forget other data structures, such as the set - this is similar to a dictionary, except that each "name" doesn't have a value attached to it. If you simply need a "bag" of objects, this can be a great choice. Instead of something like this:

keyword_1 = 'apple'
keyword_2 = 'banana'

if query == keyword_1 or query == keyword_2:
    print('Match.')

You will have this:

keywords = {'apple', 'banana'}
if query in keywords:
    print('Match.')

Use a list for a sequence of similar objects, a set for an arbitrarily-ordered bag of objects, or a dict for a bag of names with associated values.

Answer 5

I have tried both in python 3.7.3, you can use either globals() or vars()

>>> food #Error
>>> milkshake #Error
>>> food="bread"
>>> drink="milkshake"
>>> globals()[food] = "strawberry flavor"
>>> vars()[drink] = "chocolate flavor"
>>> bread
'strawberry flavor'
>>> milkshake
'chocolate flavor'
>>> globals()[drink]
'chocolate flavor'
>>> vars()[food]
'strawberry flavor'

Reference:
https://www.daniweb.com/programming/software-development/threads/111526/setting-a-string-as-a-variable-name#post548936

Answer 6

If you don't want to use any object, you can still use setattr() inside your current module:

import sys
current_module = module = sys.modules[__name__]  # i.e the "file" where your code is written
setattr(current_module, 'variable_name', 15)  # 15 is the value you assign to the var
print(variable_name)  # >>> 15, created from a string