CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-3.x
cjm2671
cjm2671

Reputation: 19486

Turning a list of strings into function calls

I've got a list of strings of the form:

['function1', 'function2']

I'd like to execute them as methods:

function1(myVar)
function2(myVar)

programatically.

What's the 'right' way?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 91

Answers (3)

gipsy
gipsy

Reputation: 3859

If those functions you wanted to invoke are in a module you can access them via getattr

import your_module

method_names = ['function1', 'function2']

for name in method_names:
  func = gettattr(your_module, name)
  # invoke now
  func() # Pass in your arguments if needed.

Upvotes: 1

bruno desthuilliers
bruno desthuilliers

Reputation: 77912

If you really need to use function names (strings), your safest bet is to keep a mapping of allowed function names to functions, ie:

allowed_functions = {
   "function1": function1,
   "function2": function2,
   # etc
   }

then lookup that mapping:

def applyfunc(funcname, *args, **kw):
    func = allowed_func.get(funcname, None)
    if func is None:
        raise ValueError("func '%s' is not allowed" % funcname)
    return func(*args, **kw)

This is quite similar to Nils Werner's solution using locals() but way safer (and much easier to maintain to).

Else, remember that python functions are objects (as you noticed from the above example) so if all you want is a list of functions, then it's as simple as it can get:

funcs = [function1, function2)
for func in funcs:
    print func(myvar)

Upvotes: 3

Nils Werner
Nils Werner

Reputation: 36775

locals() returns a dict of all local variables in this context, your functions should be among them.

for name in list:
    locals()[name](myVar)

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions