Python class containing self-referencing array

Question

I have a class like this...

class person:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        self.carData = ""        
        self.HouseData = ""
        #other assets

And I'm looping through it like this...

john = person('John');
for index, row in john.carData.iterrows():
    #do something

for index, row in john.HouseData.iterrows():
    #do something

But in this case "do something" is repetitive code - I want to do the same thing for carData, HouseData and all the other assets a person can own.

What's the best way to loop through these in a non-repetitive way? I was thinking of something like this in the class definition but I'm pretty sure it's at least inelegant and probably wrong...

class person:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        self.carData = ""        
        self.HouseData = ""
        #other assets 
        self.assets = [self.carData, self.HouseData etc]

john = person('John');

for asset in john.assets:
    for index, row in asset.iterrows():
        #do something

Is that bad practise to define a list of objects (in this case self.assets) that itself refers to the same objects stored in the class? Apologies if this is vague - I'm just trying to figure out the cleanest way to deal with this scenario.

It's a bad idea to declare each of those assets as strings in the first place, especially since (i presume) you want to use DataFrame in their place. Second, you can use map()/reduce()/filter() for a more elegant approach but that would heavily depend on #do something code... — zwer
– zwer, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 6:54
Instead of defining asset as an attribute of john, why not just for asset in (john.carData, john.HouseData): ... ? — alkasm
– alkasm, Commented Jan 27, 2019 at 8:12

Kyle · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-27 07:06:49Z

1

If you plan on applying the same code to every attribute of your object, you can try john.__dict__:

john = person('John')
for attr, value in john.__dict__.items():
    # e.g. attr == 'carData'
    for index, row in value.iterrows():
        # do something

See this question.

It's kind of hackish, but if (for example) you want to apply the code to every attribute except "name", do this:

john = person('John')
for attr, value in john.__dict__.items():
    # e.g. attr == 'carData'
    if attr != 'name':
        for index, row in value.iterrows():
            # do something

answered Jan 27, 2019 at 7:06

Kyle

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