Little Q: how to print a variable's name, not its value?

[Bill Mill]

<snip>
> >>
> >> Fred = 5
> >> John = 8
> >> Winner = John
> >>
> >> Both John and Winner are pointing to the literal '8'.
> >
> >ummm, yes, of course they are. What's your point?
> 
> Hi Bill,
> 
> My point is if you look up the name and print it, you may get.
> 
> Instead of:
> 
>     Fred has 5 points
>     John has 8 points
> 
> You could get:
> 
>     Fred has 5 points
>     Winner has 8 points
> 
> Or something else depending on how many references you made to the
> value 8.

Yes, this is true, assuming that he looks for keys with the value 8 in
locals(). It's not necessarily true if there's a way to ask python
what the name of John is, which is what the OP was asking. I just
wanted you to explicitly say what you were implying so that we could
discuss it.

> 
> >> Mixing data and program code, ie.. variable names as data, is not a
> >> good idea.
> >
> >Down with eval! Exile exec! A pox on both their houses!
> >
> >(i.e. I respectfully disagree that mixing data with program code is a bad idea)
> 
> (I respectfully acknowledged your opinion.)
> 
> To be fair, it's not always bad.  But in most cases it is better not
> too.
> 

Yup, I meant to say that I disagree that mixing data with program code
is *always* a bad idea. I had a "d'oh!" moment when I hit send.

<code arguing against maintining an ad-hoc locals()>

Naturally, I wasn't suggesting that anyone (shudder) do things like
your examples of poor code. I had a much smaller point, about which I
was not clear: Sometimes, it is handy to mix code and data. There
*are* legitimate uses of reflection, eval, and exec.

I was too glib in my response to you. I intended no disrespect, only silliness.

Peace
Bill Mill
bill.mill at gmail.com