Changing variable names with Python for loops [duplicate]

Answer 1

Definitely should use a dict using the "group" + str(i) key as described in the accepted solution but I wanted to share a solution using exec. Its a way to parse strings into commands & execute them dynamically. It would allow to create these scalar variable names as per your requirement instead of using a dict. This might help in regards what not to do, and just because you can doesn't mean you should. Its a good solution only if using scalar variables is a hard requirement:

l = locals()
for i in xrange(3):
    exec("group" + str(i) + "= self.getGroup(selected, header + i)")

Another example where this could work using a Django model example. The exec alternative solution is commented out and the better way of handling such a case using the dict attribute makes more sense:

Class A(models.Model):

    ....

    def __getitem__(self, item):  # a.__getitem__('id')
        #exec("attrb = self." + item)
        #return attrb
        return self.__dict__[item]

It might make more sense to extend from a dictionary in the first place to get setattr and getattr functions.

A situation which involves parsing, for example generating & executing python commands dynamically, exec is what you want :) More on exec here.