CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Saravana Thoppay
Saravana Thoppay

Reputation: 13

How to assign a string value as an empty dictionary in Python?

How can I assign a string value as an empty dictionary in Python? For example, 

print hdr  
AB_1_15_Oct_2015  
hdr = {}  
hdr  
{}

But I want AB_1_15_Oct_2015 to be an empty dictionary.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1181

Answers (3)

sam
sam

Reputation: 2033

Took a while to figure out, but try this:

hdr = "AB_1_15_Oct_2015"
print hdr  
locals()[hdr] = {}

print AB_1_15_Oct_2015

Output:

AB_1_15_Oct_2015

{}

Demo

Upvotes: 1

Casey P
Casey P

Reputation: 140

If you are saying you want a dictionary named "AB_1_15_Oct_2015". You need to explicitly define a dictionary named:

AB_1_15_Oct_2015 = {}

If you mean you want to be able to set a variable name based off of a value in a string, then there is no way to accomplish this. Also, I can't think of a reason that you would want to. Variable names are only used internally in the code and therefore being able to change variable names based on the date wouldn't help you track a specific date. Without more information on what you are trying to accomplish, it's hard to be able to tell what you need, but I think something like this would accomplish what you want:

hdr = {
    "identifier": "AB_1_15_Oct_2015",
    "data": whatever_you_wanted_to_store
    }

that way that identifier is attached to the data in an accessible way.

Upvotes: 0

Tofystedeth
Tofystedeth

Reputation: 375

It's often considered a bad practice to dynamically assign variables like that. There are ways to do so, for instance using exec, but it is dangerous. A better idea would be to use a dictionary, since dynamically creating keys and values is simple. Slightly modifying your existing code:

hdr = "AB_1_15_Oct_2015"
someDict = {}
someDict[hdr] = {}

Then you could access it either from the top level

someDict[hdr]['a'] = "spam"

Or by assigning another variable to reference it:

hdrDict = someDict[hdr]
hdrDict['b'] = "parrot"

Upvotes: 1

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