[Tutor] Calling functions

[Daniel Yoo]

On Tue, 8 May 2001, Timothy M. Brauch wrote:

> Is there a way to define a function and then use a raw_input to call
> the function?

Yes, you can use a dictionary that maps the name of a function to the
function itself.


> def func_0():
> 	do something here
> 
> def func_1():
> 	do something else here
> 
> dummy=raw_input('Which function do you want to execute? ')


Here's a little bit more code to make this work:

###
function_dict = {'func_0': func_0,
                 'func_1': func_1}
dummy = function_dict[
           raw_input('Which function do you want to execute? ')]
dummy()
###


We can make this a little more bulletproof by checking to see if the
dictionary actually has the method we're looking for with has_key():

###
if function_dict.has_key(...):
    # Then it's safe to call the function.
else:
    # Let's force them to redo their input.
###

Hope this helps!