I'm trying to instantiate a class object whose desired name is held in a variable that's created elsewhere.
I can't figure out how to make the instance of the class have the name held by the variable.
example:
class foo:
def __init__(self):
self.var1 = "bar"
if __name__ == "__main__":
test = "a" # returned by another func.
[string held by variable 'test'] = foo()
print a.var1
Is this possible? (or even advisable...)
It is not advisable, since it makes it difficult to program with the variable a when you do not know its name until run-time.
You might think about using a dict instead:
data = {}
test = func() # "a"
data[test] = foo()
A function is probably better - that way the work you need to do is encapsulated and can be re-used:
def do_work(an_instance_of_foo):
print an_instance_of_foo.var1
class foo:
def __init__(self):
self.var1 = "bar"
if __name__ == "__main__":
do_work(foo())
If you also need the word, you can pass it to the function:
def do_work(an_instance_of_foo, my_word):
# etc.
Alternately, you can use a dictionary as a namespace (as @unutbu has suggested) if you need the instance of foo to be associated with a particular name.
