Importing from a file to use contained variables

[Tim Roberts]

Jeff Wagner <JWagner at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>I am importing a file which contains a persons name (firstName, middleName, etc). If I define a
>function to do this, how can I use the variables outside of that function?
>
>Here is the code:
>
>import string
>
>def getName():
>
>    data = open("enterName.txt")
>    allNames = data.readlines()
>    data.close()
>
>    fName = string.lower(allNames[0])
>    mName = string.lower(allNames[1])
>    lName = string.lower(allNames[2])
>    nName = string.lower(allNames[3])
>    pName = string.lower(allNames[4])
>
>I need to use these variables in another function (routine) to calculate the associated numbers.
>Since these are local to the function, how is this done? Can I make them global or something?

class getName:
  def __init__(self, filename):
    (
      self.fName, self.mName, self.lName, self.nName, self.pName
    ) = [k.lower() for k in file(filename).readlines()]

names = getName("enterName.txt")

print names.fName
print names.mName
print names.lName
-- 
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.