Variable interpolation or indirection for instance attributes

[Andrew Bennetts]

On Tue, Feb 18, 2003 at 10:36:53PM -0800, Rich wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> New to Python with a Perl background, and I've searched a good bit on
> this and can't seem to find the answer.  I'd like to know if it is
> possible to use a variable to hold the name of an instance attribute 
> e.g
> 
>      x = 'street'
> self.x = '123 Albermarle Street'
> 
> such that x in self.x gets evaluated to 'street' and thus self.x
> becomes actually self.street.  I've seen a number of (possibly

It looks like you want is getattr:
    foo = getattr(self, x)

e.g.:
    >>> class C:
    ...     x = 1
    ... 
    >>> name = 'x'
    >>> obj = C()
    >>> getattr(obj, name)
    1

-Andrew.