CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonvariablesnaming
SW MC
SW MC

Reputation: 31

using for loops to create variables with different names

I am trying to use a for loop to create 5 (currently) variables. I want to make these variables be named soldier+i, where i is the number iterated in the for loop.

    first_names=['name1', 'name2', 'name3', 'name4', 'name5']
    last_names=['Lname1', 'Lname2', 'Lname3', 'Lname4', 'Lname5']
    nick_names=['1','2','3','4','5']
    soldier_HPs=[10,9,8,7,6]
    for i in range(5):
        soldier+i=[first_names[i-1],last_names[i-1],nick_names[i-1],soldierHPs[i-1]]

As you can see, I want to store each soldier by naming the soldier "soldier+(respective number)". Then store its health, first, last, and nick names all as part of a list. The issue i am having is that it cannot concantenate strings and integers. the issue is that this is supposed to be the name of the variable. If I only wanted this to be a string to set a variable to, i could just use: x="soldier" + str(i). But again since this is the name of a variable, this will not work.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 988

Answers (3)

n1c9
n1c9

Reputation: 2687

This may be a little too advanced for you right now, but I think it's good to understand the concepts of object oriented programming and get introduced to them as soon as possible. A possible solution for this would be the creation of a Soldier class, like so:

class Soldier(object):

    def __init__(self,first_name,last_name,nickname,hp):
        self.first_name = first_name
        self.last_name = last_name
        self.nickname = nickname
        self.hp = hp

    def __repr__(self):
        return str(self.nickname)


soldier_one = Soldier('name1','lname1','1',10)

print soldier_one ## 1
print soldier_one.first_name ## name1
print soldier_one.hp ## 10

soldier_two = Soldier('name2','lname2','2',9)

and so on. Let me know if you have any questions about this approach - it's a little less intuitive at first, but I seriously wished that I had taken it more seriously when I started off in Python.

Upvotes: 0

Patrick the Cat
Patrick the Cat

Reputation: 2158

Welcome to Stackoverflow! I notice your profile as a high school student, so I won't assume any prior knowledge from you. Let's get to your questions then.

You are using lists in Python to store information about soldiers. And then you want to store information for each soldier, separately. Now, isn't that quite redundant?

If I want the first name of the first soldier, I can simply go for first_name[0]. All information is accessible in the current scope through meaningful variable names (i.e. first_names, last_names etc). If you put them in a list, you have to remember the first index is first_names, second is last_names, etc. These add another layer of confusion as your program/game code grows larger.

However, in some cases it is indeed more convenient to group information about the characters for purpose of iterations. In Python there is module called collections, where you can find a function called namedtuple. This function is a so called factory function, whose sole purpose is to declare and define class for you.

Say I want to define a Soldier class quickly, here is how

from collections import namedtuple

Soldier = namedtuple('Soldier', ['first_name', 'last_name', 'nick_name', 'HP'])
soldier_info = [ # this is list comprehension
    Soldier(first_names[idx], last_names[idx], nick_names[idx], soldier_hps[idx])
    for idx in range(len(first_names))
]

Then you can do

firstname_second_soldier = soldier_info[1].first_name

namedtuple is immutable and hashable like tuple, but with named fields.

Upvotes: 1

Xiflado
Xiflado

Reputation: 176

Why not use a dictionary?

first_names=['name1', 'name2', 'name3', 'name4', 'name5']
last_names=['Lname1', 'Lname2', 'Lname3', 'Lname4', 'Lname5']
nick_names=['1','2','3','4','5']
soldier_HPs=[10,9,8,7,6]
soldiers = {}
for i in range(5):
    soldiers['soldier' + str(i-1)] = (first_names[i-1],last_names[i-1],nick_names[i-1],soldier_HPs[i-1])

Soldiers will then have the value

{'soldier2': ('name3', 'Lname3', '3', 8), 'soldier3': ('name4', 'Lname4', '4', 7), 'soldier0': ('name1', 'Lname1', '1', 10), 'soldier1': ('name2', 'Lname2', '2', 9), 'soldier-1': ('name5', 'Lname5', '5', 6)}

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions