How to get the name of a variable in a string

Question

I want to run a function that will create a file with the name of a variable and write in it the content of that variable.

list_A = 'one two three'.split()

def write_list(list_to_write): 
    flux = open('%s.list' %list_to_write, 'w')
    flux.write('\n'.join(list_to_write))
    flux.close()

write_list (list_A)

This creates a file called ['one', 'two', 'three'].list

I would like it to create a file called liste_A.list instead.

PS: I found many similar posts, but none that seemed to address my issue.

In general objects do not have `names`. You should just pass the name (label) and the list to `write_list` — Stephen Rauch, Jan 16 '17 at 07:35
Sorry I don't get what you mean by "You should just pass the name (label) and the list to write_list" — Jonath P, Jan 16 '17 at 07:39
@JonathP there is [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/592849/119861) which does exactly what you want — hansaplast, Jan 16 '17 at 07:40
but in general you don't want to do this, as it's bad practice, as you see by the kind of code you need to achieve it — hansaplast, Jan 16 '17 at 07:41
Names are *labels*, not *properties*. See e.g. http://nedbatchelder.com/text/names.html — jonrsharpe, Jan 16 '17 at 07:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 16 '17 at 07:41

0

It's possible in other languages like tcl for example, but not in Python.

If you really need to manage lists and their names, you can use a dictionary for this, for example:

lists = {}
lists['list_A'] = 'one two three'.split()

...

write_list('list_A')

And then write_list would use lists[list_to_write] to access the list

answered Jan 16 '17 at 07:41

Israel Unterman

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it [is possible](http://stackoverflow.com/a/592849/119861) in python – hansaplast Jan 16 '17 at 07:42

How to get the name of a variable in a string

1 Answers1