[Newbie] How to manipulate variable _names_ ?

[Steve Holden]

"Ben Fairbank" <baf at texas.net> wrote ...
> I have a program that requires the user to enter a file name, such as
> "othello," which the program will then open, process, and create a
> dictionary based on the contents of the file.  I would like to name
> the dictionary "OthelloCount," and then go on and create more
> dictionaries, each with a name made up of the inputfile name as
> provided by the user, concatenated with "Count," but I do not know how
> to make a variable name based on input.
>

Ben:

Please note that it's almost always a bad idea to use data to generate
variable names this way. Why? Because you then end up having to execute
dynamically-constructed code to *use* those generated variables.

Python's dictionary mechanism is almost certainly what you want in this
case: if your file is called "myfile" then create an entry on some
dictionary (say Count["myfile"]) using the filename as a key. Then you don't
*need* to create variables on the fly. So your overall plan might look
something like this (untested):

Count = {}
for filename in "this", "that", "theother":
    Count[filename] = AnalysisOf(file(filename).read())

This way will be easier, trust me.

regards
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Steve Holden                                 http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming                http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/
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