[Tutor] multiple assignments when reading a file

[Alan Gauld]

On 11/07/13 13:18, Sivaram Neelakantan wrote:
 >>> How do I get to do
 >>>
 >>> x1..xn = lines.split()
>> third choice?  Put them in a list.
>
> This seems the easiest but I already foresee hardcoded subscripts all
> over the code which I will promptly forget the very next day of what
> it stands for.

So you would remember what  x1, x7 and x23 were for, but wouldn't 
remember x[1], x[7] and x[23]?

The whole premise here was that you wanted Python to create the numeric 
suffixes for you. The reason that's a bad idea is exactly as you said: 
you don't have a clue what the numbers mean. But if you must use 
numbers, list indices are no worse than suffixed names.

>> Next choice?  Put them in a dict.  This works just like a list, except
>> the subscript doesn't have to be continguous ints.

I don't know how you would do this because you still need to
create n unique keys...

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/