Pass by reference

[Aaron Brady]

On Dec 31, 5:30 am, iu2 <isra... at elbit.co.il> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible somehow to change a varible by passing it to a
> function?
>
> I tried this:
>
> def change_var(dict0, varname, val):
>   dict0[varname] = val
>
> def test():
>   a = 100
>   change_var(locals(), 'a', 3)
>   print a
>
> But test() didn't work, the value a remains 100.
>
> I have several variables initialized to None.
> I need to convert each one of them an object only if it is None.
> something like:
>
> if not var1: var1 = MyObject()
>
> I want this to be a function, that is:
>
> def create_obj(var):
>   if not var: var = MyObj()
>   # set properties of var
>
> Now, I know I can achieve this by functional programming,
>
> def create_obj(var):
>   if not var:
>     x = MyObj()
>     # set properties of x
>     return x
>   return var
>
> and then
>
> var = creaet_obj(var)
>
> Is there another way?
>
> Thanks

A practical way is to use a container.  Some people use lists; I like
an object.

thingref= Ref( thing )
f( thingref )
print thingref() #or thingref.get() or w'ver.

Then 'f' can assign like this:

def f( aref ):
  # blah blah
  aref( newthing ) #or aref.set( newthing )

But the short answer is no.  A function receives the contents of a
variable, not a variable.