Python "with"

[Colin J. Williams]

Ivan Voras wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm looking for a construct that's similar to (Turbo) Pascal's "with"
> statement. I read about the Python's new "with" statement, but I was
> dissapointed to learn that it does something different (I still don't
> see how it's better than try..except..finally, but that's not my question).
> 
> Is there something similar to what I want that's Pythonic enough?
> 
> (If you're not familiar with Pascal, here's how it works:
> 
> with some.big.structure.or.nested.objects.element do begin
>      member1 := something;
>      member2 := something;
> end;
> 
> which exactly translates to this equivalent:
> 
> some.big.structure.or.nested.objects.element.member1 := something;
> some.big.structure.or.nested.objects.element.member2 := something;
> 
> i.e. it's a wrist-saver. I think a similar feature exists in C99, for
> structs.
> 
> I know it can be almost always done by using a temporary variable:
> 
> tmp = some.big.structure.or.nested.objects.element
> tmp.member1 = something
> tmp.member2 = something
> 
> but this looks ugly to me.)
> 
> 
The "with" statement in Pascal was a neat feature to use with records.

Unfortunately, in Python 2.5, "with" has a different use.

Colin W.