[Tutor] Dynamic-ish naming of variables?

[Liam Clarke]

Hi all,

As I've been following the tutor group, this has come up from time to
time, and the usual response has been, why would you want to?

Well, here's why. I'm building a GUI with PythonCard, and I want to
allow the user to edit a list of people, which will then display or be
removed from the window.

Easy enough to do.

But, what I want to do is to have a checkbox and choice box for each name. 

PythonCard uses a resource file to define widgets, and it would look like this -

{'type':'Choice', 
    'name':'Choice1', 
    'position':(117, 112), 
    'items':[], 
    },

{'type':'CheckBox', 
    'name':'CheckBox1', 
    'position':(104, 71), 
    'checked':True, 
    'label':'CheckBox1', 
    },

So, I can use Python to write in widgets to that code or remove them,
simple enough concept.

My trouble is the name part.

I haven't used dictionaries that often, or would a list be better?

When the user clicks 'save' I want Python to move down the list,
checking to see if each checkbox has been checked or not, and what the
value of the choice box is.

I figure simplest way to 'dynamically' create my widgets is to
reference them by the name added -

i.e. the name "Liam Clarke" added would create the following - 

{'type':'Choice', 
    'name':'LiamClarkeChoice', 
    'position':(117, 112), 
    'items':[], 
    },

{'type':'CheckBox', 
    'name':'LiamClarkeCheck', 
    'position':(104, 71), 
    'checked':True, 
    'label':'CheckBox1', 
    },

Python checks values assigned by the following - 

if self.components.LiamClarkeCheck.checked=True ....

How do I do the name part randomly, short of having my module re-write itself?

Ideally it would iterate over a list, something along these pseudo-lines -

for name in nameList:

     if self.components.%sCheck.checked=True % name
     teamDict[name]=self.components.%sChoice.field % name

That's impossible of course, but it's what I'd like to do.

Any suggestions? Could I do something like the above and use eval /
exec? I'm not too familiar with them.

Thanks in advance,

Liam Clarke



-- 
'There is only one basic human right, and that is to do as you damn well please.
And with it comes the only basic human duty, to take the consequences.