How can I dynamically create a name of a variable in Python? [duplicate]

Question

I am having a function in python

def func(dataFrame,country,sex):
    varible_name=dataFrame[(dataFrame['land']==country) & (dataFrame['sex']==sex)]

Now, for example, I call this function

func(dataFrame,'England','M')

I want that variable name be England_M instead of variable_name.

Why do you want to do this? That is a bad design pattern. You can get close to this by using a dictionary; mydict = {England_M: myvalue}. That gives you almost all the advantages of what you ask without the disadvantages. — Rory Daulton
– Rory Daulton, Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 12:34
Use a dictionary (by the way, this is a legitimate question, so just ignore those dislikes). — goodvibration
– goodvibration, Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 12:35
If you really want an underscore, try something like: my_dict['{}_{}'.format(country, sex)] = ... — Martin Evans
– Martin Evans, Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 12:39

arnaud · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-05 12:38:25Z

1

You can't do that in Python. What you can do instead is store the results under a dictionary with key = England_M for instance.

In your case, you could do the following :

def func(dataFrame,country,sex):
    tmp = dataFrame[(dataFrame['land']==country) & (dataFrame['sex']==sex)]
    variable_name = "{c}_{s}".format(c=country, s=sex)
    return dict(variable_name=tmp)

Now using it :

results = func(dataFrame, "England", "M")
print(results['England_M'])

edited Feb 5, 2018 at 12:38

answered Feb 5, 2018 at 12:34

arnaud

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6 Comments

Ma0 Over a year ago

you can but you shouldn't

Take_Care_ Over a year ago

@Ev.Kounis yea like that locals()['my_var_name']='some_vale'

arnaud Over a year ago

@Ev.Kounis oh wow, didn't even know about that. Yep, doesn't seem like a safe option.

cph_sto Over a year ago

Thanks folks for suggestions. It seems these work arounds should work.

cph_sto Over a year ago

Yes, you are indeed right. I agree. My apologies! Thanks a lot for your inputs.

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