Simpler way to create dictionary of separate varia

Question

I would like to be able to get the name of a variable as a string but I don't know if Python has that much introspection capabilities. Something like:

>>> print(my_var.__name__)
'my_var'

I want to do that because I have a bunch of vars I'd like to turn into a dictionary like :

bar = True
foo = False
>>> my_dict = dict(bar=bar, foo=foo)
>>> print my_dict 
{'foo': False, 'bar': True}

But I'd like something more automatic than that.

Python have locals() and vars(), so I guess there is a way.

Answer 1

I think my problem will help illustrate why this question is useful, and it may give a bit more insight into how to answer it. I wrote a small function to do a quick inline head check on various variables in my code. Basically, it lists the variable name, data type, size, and other attributes, so I can quickly catch any mistakes I've made. The code is simple:

def details(val):
  vn = val.__name__                 #  If such a thing existed
  vs = str(val)
  print("The Value of "+ str(vn) + " is " + vs)
  print("The data type of " + vn + " is " + str(type(val)))

So if you have some complicated dictionary / list / tuple situation, it would be quite helpful to have the interpreter return the variable name you assigned. For instance, here is a weird dictionary:

m = 'abracadabra'
mm=[]    
for n in m:
  mm.append(n)
mydic = {'first':(0,1,2,3,4,5,6),'second':mm,'third':np.arange(0.,10)}



details(mydic)

The Value of mydic is {'second': ['a', 'b', 'r', 'a', 'c', 'a', 'd', 'a', 'b', 'r', 'a'], 'third': array([ 0.,  1.,  2.,  3.,  4.,  5.,  6.,  7.,  8.,  9.]), 'first': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}
The data type of mydic is <type 'dict'>

details(mydic['first'])
The Value of mydic['first'] is (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)]
The data type of mydic['first'] is <type 'list'>

details(mydic.keys())
The Value of mydic.keys() is ['second', 'third', 'first']
The data type of mydic.keys() is <type 'tuple'>

details(mydic['second'][0])
The Value of mydic['second'][0] is a
The data type of mydic['second'][0] is <type 'str'>

I'm not sure if I put this in the right place, but I thought it might help. I hope it does.

Answer 2

In python 3 this is easy

myVariable = 5
for v in locals():
  if id(v) == id("myVariable"):
    print(v, locals()[v])

this will print:

myVariable 5

Answer 3

I was working on a similar problem. @S.Lott said "If you have the list of variables, what's the point of "discovering" their names?" And my answer is just to see if it could be done and if for some reason you want to sort your variables by type into lists. So anyways, in my research I came came across this thread and my solution is a bit expanded and is based on @rlotun solution. One other thing, @unutbu said, "This idea has merit, but note that if two variable names reference the same value (e.g. True), then an unintended variable name might be returned." In this exercise that was true so I dealt with it by using a list comprehension similar to this for each possibility: isClass = [i for i in isClass if i != 'item']. Without it "item" would show up in each list.

__metaclass__ = type

from types import *

class Class_1: pass
class Class_2: pass
list_1 = [1, 2, 3]
list_2 = ['dog', 'cat', 'bird']
tuple_1 = ('one', 'two', 'three')
tuple_2 = (1000, 2000, 3000)
dict_1 = {'one': 1, 'two': 2, 'three': 3}
dict_2 = {'dog': 'collie', 'cat': 'calico', 'bird': 'robin'}
x = 23
y = 29
pie = 3.14159
eee = 2.71828
house = 'single story'
cabin = 'cozy'

isClass = []; isList = []; isTuple = []; isDict = []; isInt = []; isFloat = []; isString = []; other = []

mixedDataTypes = [Class_1, list_1, tuple_1, dict_1, x, pie, house, Class_2, list_2, tuple_2, dict_2, y, eee, cabin]

print '\nMIXED_DATA_TYPES total count:', len(mixedDataTypes)

for item in mixedDataTypes:
    try:
        # if isinstance(item, ClassType): # use this for old class types (before 3.0)
        if isinstance(item, type):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isClass.append(mapping_as_str)
            isClass = [i for i in isClass if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, ListType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isList.append(mapping_as_str)
            isList = [i for i in isList if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, TupleType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isTuple.append(mapping_as_str)
            isTuple = [i for i in isTuple if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, DictType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isDict.append(mapping_as_str)
            isDict = [i for i in isDict if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, IntType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isInt.append(mapping_as_str)
            isInt = [i for i in isInt if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, FloatType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isFloat.append(mapping_as_str)
            isFloat = [i for i in isFloat if i != 'item']

        elif isinstance(item, StringType):
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    isString.append(mapping_as_str)
            isString = [i for i in isString if i != 'item']

        else:
            for k, v in list(locals().iteritems()):
                if v is item:
                    mapping_as_str = k
                    other.append(mapping_as_str)
            other = [i for i in other if i != 'item']

    except (TypeError, AttributeError), e:
        print e

print '\n isClass:', len(isClass), isClass
print '  isList:', len(isList), isList
print ' isTuple:', len(isTuple), isTuple
print '  isDict:', len(isDict), isDict
print '   isInt:', len(isInt), isInt
print ' isFloat:', len(isFloat), isFloat
print 'isString:', len(isString), isString
print '   other:', len(other), other

# my output and the output I wanted
'''
MIXED_DATA_TYPES total count: 14

 isClass: 2 ['Class_1', 'Class_2']
  isList: 2 ['list_1', 'list_2']
 isTuple: 2 ['tuple_1', 'tuple_2']
  isDict: 2 ['dict_1', 'dict_2']
   isInt: 2 ['x', 'y']
 isFloat: 2 ['pie', 'eee']
isString: 2 ['house', 'cabin']
   other: 0 []
'''

Answer 4

you can use easydict

>>> from easydict import EasyDict as edict
>>> d = edict({'foo':3, 'bar':{'x':1, 'y':2}})
>>> d.foo
3
>>> d.bar.x
1
>>> d = edict(foo=3)
>>> d.foo
3

another example:

>>> d = EasyDict(log=False)
>>> d.debug = True
>>> d.items()
[('debug', True), ('log', False)]

Answer 5

should get list then return

def get_var_name(**kwargs):
    """get variable name
        get_var_name(var = var)
    Returns:
        [str] -- var name
    """
    return list(kwargs.keys())[0]

Answer 6

I find that if you already have a specific list of values, that the way described by @S. Lotts is the best; however, the way described below works well to get all variables and Classes added throughout the code WITHOUT the need to provide variable name though you can specify them if you want. Code can be extend to exclude Classes.

import types
import math  # mainly showing that you could import what you will before d

# Everything after this counts
d = dict(globals())

def kv_test(k,v):
    return (k not in d and 
            k not in ['d','args'] and
            type(v) is not types.FunctionType)

def magic_print(*args):
    if len(args) == 0: 
        return {k:v for k,v in globals().iteritems() if kv_test(k,v)}
    else:
        return {k:v for k,v in magic_print().iteritems() if k in args}

if __name__ == '__main__':
    foo = 1
    bar = 2
    baz = 3
    print magic_print()
    print magic_print('foo')
    print magic_print('foo','bar')

Output:

{'baz': 3, 'foo': 1, 'bar': 2}
{'foo': 1}
{'foo': 1, 'bar': 2}