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Getting the name of a variable as a string
(32 answers)
Closed 4 months ago.
Is it possible to get the original variable name of a variable passed to a function? E.g.
foobar = "foo"
def func(var):
print var.origname
So that:
func(foobar)
Returns:
>>foobar
EDIT:
All I was trying to do was make a function like:
def log(soup):
f = open(varname+'.html', 'w')
print >>f, soup.prettify()
f.close()
.. and have the function generate the filename from the name of the variable passed to it.
I suppose if it's not possible I'll just have to pass the variable and the variable's name as a string each time.
EDIT: To make it clear, I don't recommend using this AT ALL, it will break, it's a mess, it won't help you in any way, but it's doable for entertainment/education purposes.
You can hack around with the inspect module, I don't recommend that, but you can do it...
import inspect
def foo(a, f, b):
frame = inspect.currentframe()
frame = inspect.getouterframes(frame)[1]
string = inspect.getframeinfo(frame[0]).code_context[0].strip()
args = string[string.find('(') + 1:-1].split(',')
names = []
for i in args:
if i.find('=') != -1:
names.append(i.split('=')[1].strip())
else:
names.append(i)
print names
def main():
e = 1
c = 2
foo(e, 1000, b = c)
main()
Output:
['e', '1000', 'c']
To add to Michael Mrozek's answer, you can extract the exact parameters versus the full code by:
import re
import traceback
def func(var):
stack = traceback.extract_stack()
filename, lineno, function_name, code = stack[-2]
vars_name = re.compile(r'\((.*?)\).*$').search(code).groups()[0]
print vars_name
return
foobar = "foo"
func(foobar)
# PRINTS: foobar
Looks like Ivo beat me to inspect, but here's another implementation:
import inspect
def varName(var):
lcls = inspect.stack()[2][0].f_locals
for name in lcls:
if id(var) == id(lcls[name]):
return name
return None
def foo(x=None):
lcl='not me'
return varName(x)
def bar():
lcl = 'hi'
return foo(lcl)
bar()
# 'lcl'
Of course, it can be fooled:
def baz():
lcl = 'hi'
x='hi'
return foo(lcl)
baz()
# 'x'
Moral: don't do it.
Another way you can try if you know what the calling code will look like is to use traceback:
def func(var):
stack = traceback.extract_stack()
filename, lineno, function_name, code = stack[-2]
code will contain the line of code that was used to call func (in your example, it would be the string func(foobar)). You can parse that to pull out the argument
You can't. It's evaluated before being passed to the function. All you can do is pass it as a string.
#Ivo Wetzel's answer works in the case of function call are made in one line, like
e = 1 + 7
c = 3
foo(e, 100, b=c)
In case that function call is not in one line, like:
e = 1 + 7
c = 3
foo(e,
1000,
b = c)
below code works:
import inspect, ast
def foo(a, f, b):
frame = inspect.currentframe()
frame = inspect.getouterframes(frame)[1]
string = inspect.findsource(frame[0])[0]
nodes = ast.parse(''.join(string))
i_expr = -1
for (i, node) in enumerate(nodes.body):
if hasattr(node, 'value') and isinstance(node.value, ast.Call)
and hasattr(node.value.func, 'id') and node.value.func.id == 'foo' # Here goes name of the function:
i_expr = i
break
i_expr_next = min(i_expr + 1, len(nodes.body)-1)
lineno_start = nodes.body[i_expr].lineno
lineno_end = nodes.body[i_expr_next].lineno if i_expr_next != i_expr else len(string)
str_func_call = ''.join([i.strip() for i in string[lineno_start - 1: lineno_end]])
params = str_func_call[str_func_call.find('(') + 1:-1].split(',')
print(params)
You will get:
[u'e', u'1000', u'b = c']
But still, this might break.
You can use python-varname package
from varname import nameof
s = 'Hey!'
print (nameof(s))
Output:
s
Package below:
https://github.com/pwwang/python-varname
For posterity, here's some code I wrote for this task, in general I think there is a missing module in Python to give everyone nice and robust inspection of the caller environment. Similar to what rlang eval framework provides for R.
import re, inspect, ast
#Convoluted frame stack walk and source scrape to get what the calling statement to a function looked like.
#Specifically return the name of the variable passed as parameter found at position pos in the parameter list.
def _caller_param_name(pos):
#The parameter name to return
param = None
#Get the frame object for this function call
thisframe = inspect.currentframe()
try:
#Get the parent calling frames details
frames = inspect.getouterframes(thisframe)
#Function this function was just called from that we wish to find the calling parameter name for
function = frames[1][3]
#Get all the details of where the calling statement was
frame,filename,line_number,function_name,source,source_index = frames[2]
#Read in the source file in the parent calling frame upto where the call was made
with open(filename) as source_file:
head=[source_file.next() for x in xrange(line_number)]
source_file.close()
#Build all lines of the calling statement, this deals with when a function is called with parameters listed on each line
lines = []
#Compile a regex for matching the start of the function being called
regex = re.compile(r'\.?\s*%s\s*\(' % (function))
#Work backwards from the parent calling frame line number until we see the start of the calling statement (usually the same line!!!)
for line in reversed(head):
lines.append(line.strip())
if re.search(regex, line):
break
#Put the lines we have groked back into sourcefile order rather than reverse order
lines.reverse()
#Join all the lines that were part of the calling statement
call = "".join(lines)
#Grab the parameter list from the calling statement for the function we were called from
match = re.search('\.?\s*%s\s*\((.*)\)' % (function), call)
paramlist = match.group(1)
#If the function was called with no parameters raise an exception
if paramlist == "":
raise LookupError("Function called with no parameters.")
#Use the Python abstract syntax tree parser to create a parsed form of the function parameter list 'Name' nodes are variable names
parameter = ast.parse(paramlist).body[0].value
#If there were multiple parameters get the positional requested
if type(parameter).__name__ == 'Tuple':
#If we asked for a parameter outside of what was passed complain
if pos >= len(parameter.elts):
raise LookupError("The function call did not have a parameter at postion %s" % pos)
parameter = parameter.elts[pos]
#If there was only a single parameter and another was requested raise an exception
elif pos != 0:
raise LookupError("There was only a single calling parameter found. Parameter indices start at 0.")
#If the parameter was the name of a variable we can use it otherwise pass back None
if type(parameter).__name__ == 'Name':
param = parameter.id
finally:
#Remove the frame reference to prevent cyclic references screwing the garbage collector
del thisframe
#Return the parameter name we found
return param
If you want a Key Value Pair relationship, maybe using a Dictionary would be better?
...or if you're trying to create some auto-documentation from your code, perhaps something like Doxygen (http://www.doxygen.nl/) could do the job for you?
I wondered how IceCream solves this problem. So I looked into the source code and came up with the following (slightly simplified) solution. It might not be 100% bullet-proof (e.g. I dropped get_text_with_indentation and I assume exactly one function argument), but it works well for different test cases. It does not need to parse source code itself, so it should be more robust and simpler than previous solutions.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import inspect
from executing import Source
def func(var):
callFrame = inspect.currentframe().f_back
callNode = Source.executing(callFrame).node
source = Source.for_frame(callFrame)
expression = source.asttokens().get_text(callNode.args[0])
print(expression, '=', var)
i = 1
f = 2.0
dct = {'key': 'value'}
obj = type('', (), {'value': 42})
func(i)
func(f)
func(s)
func(dct['key'])
func(obj.value)
Output:
i = 1
f = 2.0
s = string
dct['key'] = value
obj.value = 42
Update: If you want to move the "magic" into a separate function, you simply have to go one frame further back with an additional f_back.
def get_name_of_argument():
callFrame = inspect.currentframe().f_back.f_back
callNode = Source.executing(callFrame).node
source = Source.for_frame(callFrame)
return source.asttokens().get_text(callNode.args[0])
def func(var):
print(get_name_of_argument(), '=', var)
If you want to get the caller params as in #Matt Oates answer answer without using the source file (ie from Jupyter Notebook), this code (combined from #Aeon answer) will do the trick (at least in some simple cases):
def get_caller_params():
# get the frame object for this function call
thisframe = inspect.currentframe()
# get the parent calling frames details
frames = inspect.getouterframes(thisframe)
# frame 0 is the frame of this function
# frame 1 is the frame of the caller function (the one we want to inspect)
# frame 2 is the frame of the code that calls the caller
caller_function_name = frames[1][3]
code_that_calls_caller = inspect.findsource(frames[2][0])[0]
# parse code to get nodes of abstract syntact tree of the call
nodes = ast.parse(''.join(code_that_calls_caller))
# find the node that calls the function
i_expr = -1
for (i, node) in enumerate(nodes.body):
if _node_is_our_function_call(node, caller_function_name):
i_expr = i
break
# line with the call start
idx_start = nodes.body[i_expr].lineno - 1
# line with the end of the call
if i_expr < len(nodes.body) - 1:
# next expression marks the end of the call
idx_end = nodes.body[i_expr + 1].lineno - 1
else:
# end of the source marks the end of the call
idx_end = len(code_that_calls_caller)
call_lines = code_that_calls_caller[idx_start:idx_end]
str_func_call = ''.join([line.strip() for line in call_lines])
str_call_params = str_func_call[str_func_call.find('(') + 1:-1]
params = [p.strip() for p in str_call_params.split(',')]
return params
def _node_is_our_function_call(node, our_function_name):
node_is_call = hasattr(node, 'value') and isinstance(node.value, ast.Call)
if not node_is_call:
return False
function_name_correct = hasattr(node.value.func, 'id') and node.value.func.id == our_function_name
return function_name_correct
You can then run it as this:
def test(*par_values):
par_names = get_caller_params()
for name, val in zip(par_names, par_values):
print(name, val)
a = 1
b = 2
string = 'text'
test(a, b,
string
)
to get the desired output:
a 1
b 2
string text
Since you can have multiple variables with the same content, instead of passing the variable (content), it might be safer (and will be simpler) to pass it's name in a string and get the variable content from the locals dictionary in the callers stack frame. :
def displayvar(name):
import sys
return name+" = "+repr(sys._getframe(1).f_locals[name])
If it just so happens that the variable is a callable (function), it will have a __name__ property.
E.g. a wrapper to log the execution time of a function:
def time_it(func, *args, **kwargs):
start = perf_counter()
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
duration = perf_counter() - start
print(f'{func.__name__} ran in {duration * 1000}ms')
return result
I have the following api method
#app.route('/api/v1/lessons', methods=['GET'])
def api_lessons():
if 'courseId' in request.args:
courseId = request.args['courseId']
else:
return "Error: No course id provided. Please specify an course id."
onto = get_ontology("ontology.owl")
onto.load()
result = onto[courseId].contains
result2 = []
for i in result:
temp = "{ id : " + str(i.Identifier) + ", name : " + str(i.Name) + "}"
print(temp)
result2.append(temp)
return json.dumps(result2)
And I need to add a new method to call this api internally with same args
#app.route('/api/v1/learningPath', methods=['GET'])
def api_learningPath():
lessons = api_lessons
return json.dumps(result2)
How to do that ?
You need to call the function instead of calling an internal API. Your api_lessons() will return a JSON string and you will need to parse it back to JSON in order to use it. Your function would be like this.
#app.route('/api/v1/learningPath', methods=['GET'])
def api_learningPath():
lessons = json.loads(api_lessons())
return json.dumps(result2)
I am trying to put some variables into a container (object) using a loop.
I created the following class
class Box():
pass
now i want to initialize the class and add variables from my textfile to it. My textfile looks like:
a = 1
b = 2
c = 3
d = 4
I tried following code
vars = Box()
filename = ('inputfile.txt')
with open (filename) as f:
for line in f:
parts = line.split()
var_name = str(parts[0])
var_value = parts[2]
vars.var_name = var_value
I can't find out why this approach doesn't work.
I think what you are trying to do is use a class as a storage medium for data. As asongtoruin already said, you could use a dictionary.
Otherwise you need to make the class actually something:
class Box():
def __init__(self):
pass
def __getitem__(self, name):
return getattr(self, name)
def __setitem__(self, name, value):
return setattr(self, name, value)
Then you can use almost all of your code as it was:
vars = Box()
filename = ('inputfile.txt')
with open (filename) as f:
for line in f:
parts = line.split()
var_name = str(parts[0])
var_value = parts[2]
vars[var_name] = var_value
print(vars.a)
Why what you had didn't work was already explained by barak manos: vars.var_name does not use the value of the variable var_name, because the syntax calling a class method does not support this notation (for good reason).
When you do
vars.var_name = var_value
it's equal to adding the key 'var_name' to the dict vars.__dict__.
I think what you want can be achieved using setattr.
instead of vars.var_name = var_value, use:
setattr(vars, var_name, var_value)
Maybe try something like
vars[var_name + ''] = var_value
(No python code)
Why don't you use setattr() ?
setattr(Box, "var_name", var_value)
I want to create dictionary and store information using a function in python.
I wrote the code below.
def qwer(num, dictname):
tmp_inte = 0
dictname = {}
print dictname
while tmp_inte <= num:
dictname[str(tmp_inte)] = tmp_inte
tmp_inte += 1
If I import this and use it like qwer(10, "equip"), what's the name of the newly created dictionary?
If it's name is 'dictname', what should I do to make it work as I want?
If dictname is a string that you pass in as an argument, that reference will simply get overwritten when you do dictname = {}. The reference to that newly-created dictionary is dictname. However, it's immediately thrown away as soon as the function ends. You should return it. Then you'll have to save a reference when you call it:
def qwer(num):
tmp_create = 0
dictname = {}
print dictname
while tmp_create <= num:
dictname[str(tmp_create)] = tmp_create
tmp_create += 1
return dictname
equip = qwer(10)
Now you have a dictionary with {'0':0, '1':1,... '10':10} saved to a reference called equip.
The dictionary is named dictname but only in the scope of the function qwer because that is where it is declared as a local variable. The line dictname = {} shadows the value of dictname that you pass into the function as an argument. Probably what you want to do is return the dictionary from the function and assign this value to dictname in the caller:
def qwer(num):
d = {}
tmp_inte = 0
while tmp_inte <= num:
d[str(tmp_inte)] = tmp_inte
tmp_inte += 1
return d
dictname = qwer(10)
ETA:
Incidentally, increasingly pythonic ways of writing your function would be:
def qwer(num):
d = {}
for i in range(num+1):
d[str(i)] = i
return d
And even more so (for python 3.x):
def qwer(num):
return dict([(str(i), i) for i in range(num+1)])
or python 2.x:
def qwer(num):
return dict([(str(i), i) for i in xrange(num+1)])
I want to dynamically add values in a nested dictionary. I am trying to cache similarity score of two words with their part-of-speech-tag.
In short I want to store values as this;
synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2][word2_tag] = score
class MyClass(Object):
def __init__(self):
MyClass.synset_cache={} #dict
def set_cache(self,word1, word1_tag, word2, word2_tag, score)
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1]={} #create new dict
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag]={} #create new dict
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2]={} #create new dict
#store the value
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2][word2_tag] = score
But I am getting this error.
Type error: list indices must be integers, not unicode
Line number it shows is at MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag]={} #create new dict.
How can I get this working?
EDIT:
According to the #Robᵩ's comments on his answer; I was assigning a list to this MyClass.synset_cache in another method(note it is at the class-level). So this code part had no errors.
Use dict.setdefault.
This might work:
#UNTESTED
d = MyClass.synset_cache.setdefault(word1, {})
d = d.setdefault(word1_tag, {})
d = d.setdefault(word2, {})
d[word2_tag] = score
Alternatively, you can use this handy recursive defaultdict that springs up new levels of dict automatically. (See: here and here.)
import collections
def tree():
return collections.defaultdict(tree)
class MyClass(Object):
def __init__(self):
MyClass.synset_cache=tree()
def set_cache(self,word1, word1_tag, word2, word2_tag, score)
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2][word2_tag] = score
This will be data dependent, as at least for some test data (see below), the code does not produce that error. How are you calling it?
Also, note that as written above, it won't compile due to some syntax errors (i.e. no colon to end the def set_cache line).
Below is some tweaked-to-compile code with some example calling data and how that pretty-prints:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import pprint
class MyClass():
def __init__(self):
MyClass.synset_cache={} #dict
def set_cache(self,word1, word1_tag, word2, word2_tag, score):
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1]={} #create new dict
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag]={} #create new dict
try:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2]
except:
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2]={} #create new dict
#store the value
MyClass.synset_cache[word1][word1_tag][word2][word2_tag] = score
x = MyClass()
x.set_cache('foo', 'foo-tag', 'bar', 'bar-tag', 100)
pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=4)
pp.pprint(x.synset_cache)
Which outputs:
{ 'foo': { 'foo-tag': { 'bar': { 'bar-tag': 100}}}}
A couple other things of note...
I'd recommend using the in style syntax to check for key presence rather than try-except. It's more compact and more Pythonic.
Also, your main variable, synset_cache, is class-level (i.e. static). Did you mean for that to be the case?