How to use input() as a name for object in Python?

Question

I'm new to python and I've been trying new things. I made this class:

class Student(object):
    def __init__(self,school,gpa,age):
        self.school=school;
        self.gpa=gpa;
        self.age=age; 
    def stu_info(self):
        print("School: ",self.school)
        print("GPA:", self.gpa)
        print("Age:",self.age)

and then I typed this code to create objects of the class. The problem is taht I wish to use the input() function to enter the name of the object. Here is the code I wrote (which does not work).

School=input("What is your school's name? \n")
Gpa=input("What is GPA? \n")
Age=input("How old are you? \n")
StudentName=input("Name: ")
StudentName=Student(School,Gpa,Age)
print("Saved")

You can see that my problem is in these lines:

Name=input("Name: ")
Name=Student(School,Gpa,Age)

An object with the name (StudentName) is always created and I can get the information by using StudentName.stu_info().

Do you have any ideas on how I can use the value of StudentName as a name of an object?

thank you in advance

Have you learned about dictionaries yet? This is basically what they're for. — Carcigenicate, Nov 17 '18 at 01:30
I have a used dictionaries before but how could I use it in here? — Mazen Alghamdi, Nov 17 '18 at 01:35
`d = {}; name = input(); d[name] = Student(School,Gpa,Age);`. Then you just lookup in `d`. — Carcigenicate, Nov 17 '18 at 01:37
When I lookup `d` I get this: `{'Mazen': <__main__.Student at 0x2919c75a550>}` and if I use `Mazen.stu_info()` I get `name 'Mazen' is not defined` — Mazen Alghamdi, Nov 17 '18 at 02:04
`d["Mazen"].stu_info()`. Don't try to create arbitrary variables. It'll make your life difficult later. Store the "variables" in a dictionary. — Carcigenicate, Nov 17 '18 at 02:12

Rich Tier · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-17T12:48:22.593

0

name = input("Name: ")
locals()[name] = Student(School,Gpa,Age)

But don't do that. Instead use a dictionary:

students = {}
students[name] = Student(School,Gpa,Age)

edited Nov 17 '18 at 12:48

answered Nov 17 '18 at 02:00

Rich Tier

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I used the first method and worked just fine for me.. why shouldn't I use it? And I reall didn't get the dictionary method.. – Mazen Alghamdi Nov 17 '18 at 02:08
Because it's a hack. `locals` is a mutable dictionary of available variable names. When you access `some_variable`, it's looked up from `locals`. You're polluting locals by putting all your students in there. Less polluting will be to use a dictionary – Rich Tier Nov 17 '18 at 12:47

How to use input() as a name for object in Python?

1 Answers1