Python equivalent of PHP's compact() and extract()

Question

compact() and extract() are functions in PHP I find tremendously handy. compact() takes a list of names in the symbol table and creates a hashtable with just their values.

Answer 1

PHP's compact function in Python (works with 2.6; not guaranteed to work with earlier versions of Python):

import inspect
def compact(*args):
    return dict([(i, inspect.currentframe().f_back.f_locals.get(i, None)) 
                  for i in args])

I've written more extensively about this: Python can be just as ugly as PHP.