Is it possible to convert a variable as a string?

Question

I have a list, that I wanted to convert to a dictionary.

  L =   [ 
       is_text, 
       is_archive, 
       is_hidden, 
       is_system_file, 
       is_xhtml, 
       is_audio, 
       is_video,
       is_unrecognised
     ]

Is there any way to do this, can I convert to dictionary like this by program:

{
    "is_text": is_text, 
    "is_archive": is_archive, 
    "is_hidden" :  is_hidden
    "is_system_file": is_system_file
    "is_xhtml": is_xhtml, 
    "is_audio": is_audio, 
    "is_video": is_video,
    "is_unrecognised": is_unrecognised
}

Variables are boolean here.

So that I can easily pass this dictionary to my function

def updateFileAttributes(self, file_attributes):
    m = models.FileAttributes(**file_attributes)
    m.save()

Variables are just references to objects, there's no way to print a variable's name. — Ashwini Chaudhary, Mar 07 '14 at 10:56
You are not the first person to ask this. I found at least 3 duplicates (search string: _"python variable as string"_) — keyser, Mar 07 '14 at 10:56
@Blender: I have updated my question, why I would need that, Please check! — Laxmikant Ratnaparkhi, Mar 07 '14 at 11:02
The best way is to not have them as variables in the first place. Or make them attributes of some object. — RemcoGerlich, Mar 07 '14 at 11:02
Your whole models looks wrong -- instead of having a list of is_ fields of which only one is true, shouldn't you have a ChoiceField? Then instead of the dictionary, you'd just have a single variable that says what kind of type the file is recognized as. — RemcoGerlich, Mar 07 '14 at 11:14
I mean an IntegerField with a choices parameter, not a ChoiceField, of course. Models don't have ChoiceFields, forms do. — RemcoGerlich, Mar 07 '14 at 11:16

zhangxaochen · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-07T11:09:44.797

4

You can't get the name of a variable after you put it into a list, but you can do:

In [211]: is_text = True

In [212]: d = dict(is_text=is_text)
Out[212]: {'is_text': True}

Note that the value stored in d are boolean constants once you create it, you cannot change the value of d['is_text'] dynamically by changing variable is_text because a bool is immutable.

In your case, you don't have to make file_attributes a compound data structure, just make it a keyword argument:

def updateFileAttributes(self, **file_attributes):
    m = models.FileAttributes(**file_attributes)
    m.save()

then you can call the function this way:

yourObj.updateFileAttributes(is_text=True, ...)

edited Mar 07 '14 at 11:09

answered Mar 07 '14 at 11:00

zhangxaochen

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I like `dict(is_text=is_text)` trick, it uses **kargv correct? – Grijesh Chauhan Mar 07 '14 at 18:28
@GrijeshChauhan why not? sorry for not quite catching you ... – zhangxaochen Mar 08 '14 at 03:04

rogue-one · Answer 2 · 2014-03-07T11:28:02.840

0

I have made few assumptions here to derive this result. The variables in the List are the only available bool variables in the scope.

{ x:eval(x) for x in dir() if type(eval(x)) is bool }

or if you have enforced an naming convention for your variables

{ x:eval(x) for x in  dir() if x.startswith('is_') }

edited Mar 07 '14 at 11:28

answered Mar 07 '14 at 11:22

rogue-one

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Pavan Gupta · Answer 3 · 2014-03-07T11:25:55.737

-1

Below code works.

For Variables to String

>>> a = 10
>>> b =20
>>> c = 30
>>> lst = [a,b,c]
>>> lst
[10, 20, 30]
>>> {str(item):item for item in lst}
{'10': 10, '30': 30, '20': 20}

For string only.

    >>> lst = ['a','b','c']
    >>> lst
    ['a', 'b', 'c']
    >>> {item:item for item in lst}
    {'a': 'a', 'c': 'c', 'b': 'b'}

edited Mar 07 '14 at 11:25

answered Mar 07 '14 at 11:20

Pavan Gupta

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Your list contains strings whereas in question list contains variables. This is not what asked. – anuragal Mar 07 '14 at 11:22
anuragal: same concept works with variables as well. – Pavan Gupta Mar 07 '14 at 11:24
Please read the question carefully – anuragal Mar 07 '14 at 11:26
Thanks Anuragal updated answer as per question, hope it makes more sense now – Pavan Gupta Mar 07 '14 at 11:31
1

@PavanGupta:Nope, this would return you `{'10':10, '20':20, ...}`. But I want `{"a":10, "b":20, ...}` – Laxmikant Ratnaparkhi Mar 07 '14 at 11:38

Is it possible to convert a variable as a string?

3 Answers3