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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'm new to python and trying to do an f-string as follows:
next_patient = East_Room.get_highest_priority()
print(f"The next patient is {next_patient.display_symptoms()} please")
Where East_Room is an instance of a Class and get_highest_priority is a method within the class to display a patient with the highest integer for the 'severity' attribute as follows:
def get_highest_priority(self):
tmp_priority_patient = None
current_size = self.SLL_waiting_list.size()
counter = 1
while counter <= current_size:
tmp_node = self.SLL_waiting_list.get_node(counter)
tmp_patient = tmp_node.get_obj()
if tmp_priority_patient == None:
tmp_priority_patient = tmp_patient
else:
if tmp_patient.severity > tmp_priority_patient.severity:
tmp_priority_patient = tmp_patient
counter = counter + 1
return tmp_priority_patient
def display_symptoms(self):
print(f"{self.firstname} {self.lastname}:{self.symptoms}")
This is the output:
Conor : Naseau
The next patient is None please
I know that this method works as it works perfectly if I call it without the f-string. thanks for you help!
display_symptoms only prints information but doesn't return anything.
In Python, function that don't return anything return None, hence the output you got: "The next patient is None please"
If you also want the function to return this string, you have to explicitly return it:
def display_symptoms(self):
print(f"{self.firstname} {self.lastname}: {self.symptoms}")
return f"{self.firstname} {self.lastname}: {self.symptoms}"
An even better way to do it would be to make it a property:
#property
def display_symptoms(self):
return f"{self.firstname} {self.lastname}: {self.symptoms}"
I'm not sure what's happening when I print my dictionary.
In Python 3, I have a dictionary of parse_blast objects called transSwiss. Each object's proteinID is the key with the entire object as the value.
I can print transSwiss in it's entirety and I can also print blasto.protein, but not when I combine them to get a dictionary value. I'm not sure what is happening when I use:
print(transSwiss[blasto.protein])
<__main__.parse_blast object at 0x000000373C5666A0>
Here is the code
class parse_blast(object):
def __init__(self, line):
#Strip end-of-line and split on tabs
self.fields = line.strip("\n").split("\t")
self.transcriptId, self.isoform = self.fields[0].split("|")
self.swissStuff = self.fields[1].split("|")
self.swissProtId = self.swissStuff[3]
self.percentId = self.fields[2]
def filterblast(self):
return float(self.percentId) > 95
class parse_matrix(object):
#Consider __init__ as a Constructor
def __init__(self, matrix_lines):
(self.protein,
self.Sp_ds,
self.Sp_hs,
self.Sp_log,
self.Sp_plat) = matrix_lines.strip("\n").split("\t")
def separate_tuples(one_tuple):
return "\t".join(one_tuple)
blastmap = map(parse_blast, blast_output.readlines())
filtered = filter(parse_blast.filterblast, blastmap)
matrixmap = map(parse_matrix, matrix_output.readlines()[1:])
transSwiss = {blasto.transcriptId:blasto for blasto in filtered}
for matrixo in matrixmap:
print(transSwiss[matrixo.protein])
Because your object is defined by you, you also need to tell python how you want it to print. You can do this by defining a function called "__str__" that returns how you want to print your object.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming/Classes#str
Why can two functions with the same id value have differing attributes like __doc__ or __name__?
Here's a toy example:
some_dict = {}
for i in range(2):
def fun(self, *args):
print i
fun.__doc__ = "I am function {}".format(i)
fun.__name__ = "function_{}".format(i)
some_dict["function_{}".format(i)] = fun
my_type = type("my_type", (object,), some_dict)
m = my_type()
print id(m.function_0)
print id(m.function_1)
print m.function_0.__doc__
print m.function_1.__doc__
print m.function_0.__name__
print m.function_1.__name__
print m.function_0()
print m.function_1()
Which prints:
57386560
57386560
I am function 0
I am function 1
function_0
function_1
1 # <--- Why is it bound to the most recent value of that variable?
1
I've tried mixing in a call to copy.deepcopy (not sure if the recursive copy is needed for functions or it is overkill) but this doesn't change anything.
You are comparing methods, and method objects are created anew each time you access one on an instance or class (via the descriptor protocol).
Once you tested their id() you discard the method again (there are no references to it), so Python is free to reuse the id when you create another method. You want to test the actual functions here, by using m.function_0.__func__ and m.function_1.__func__:
>>> id(m.function_0.__func__)
4321897240
>>> id(m.function_1.__func__)
4321906032
Method objects inherit the __doc__ and __name__ attributes from the function that they wrap. The actual underlying functions are really still different objects.
As for the two functions returning 1; both functions use i as a closure; the value for i is looked up when you call the method, not when you created the function. See Local variables in Python nested functions.
The easiest work-around is to add another scope with a factory function:
some_dict = {}
for i in range(2):
def create_fun(i):
def fun(self, *args):
print i
fun.__doc__ = "I am function {}".format(i)
fun.__name__ = "function_{}".format(i)
return fun
some_dict["function_{}".format(i)] = create_fun(i)
Per your comment on ndpu's answer, here is one way you can create the functions without needing to have an optional argument:
for i in range(2):
def funGenerator(i):
def fun1(self, *args):
print i
return fun1
fun = funGenerator(i)
fun.__doc__ = "I am function {}".format(i)
fun.__name__ = "function_{}".format(i)
some_dict["function_{}".format(i)] = fun
#Martjin Pieters is perfectly correct. To illustrate, try this modification
some_dict = {}
for i in range(2):
def fun(self, *args):
print i
fun.__doc__ = "I am function {}".format(i)
fun.__name__ = "function_{}".format(i)
some_dict["function_{}".format(i)] = fun
print "id",id(fun)
my_type = type("my_type", (object,), some_dict)
m = my_type()
print id(m.function_0)
print id(m.function_1)
print m.function_0.__doc__
print m.function_1.__doc__
print m.function_0.__name__
print m.function_1.__name__
print m.function_0()
print m.function_1()
c = my_type()
print c
print id(c.function_0)
You see that the fun get's a different id each time, and is different from the final one. It's the method creation logic that send's it pointing to the same location, as that's where the class's code is stored. Also, if you use the my_type as a sort of class, instances created with it have the same memory address for that function
This code gives:
id 4299601152
id 4299601272
4299376112
4299376112
I am function 0
I am function 1
function_0
function_1
1
None
1
None
<main.my_type object at 0x10047c350>
4299376112
You should save current i to make this:
1 # <--- Why is it bound to the most recent value of that variable?
1
work, for example by setting default value to function argument:
for i in range(2):
def fun(self, i=i, *args):
print i
# ...
or create a closure:
for i in range(2):
def f(i):
def fun(self, *args):
print i
return fun
fun = f(i)
# ...
I am having some problem accessing class instances. I am calling the class from a procedure, name of instance is defined in some variable. I want the instance name to be created of that value and then want to access it, but when i access it is giving error. Can some one please help to resolve this issue.
class myclass:
def __init__(self,object):
self.name = object
def mydef():
global a1
b = "a1"
b = myclass(b)
mydef()
print a1.name
Second Problem:
In my actual script, I have to create a large number of such instances from this function (around 100). So defining their name as global would be painful, is there a way i could access those instances outside function without having to declare them as global.
Modification:
class myclass:
def __init__(self,object,typename):
self.name = object
self.typeid = typename
def mydef():
file_han = open(file,"r")
while True:
line = file_han.readline()
if not line:
break
start = line.find('"')
end = line.find('"',start+1)
string_f = line[start+1:end]
myclass(string_f,'a11')
mydef(file)
print def.name
print def.typeid
File Contents are :
a11 "def"
a11 "ghi"
a11 "eff"
Here's how I'd do it. I don't know why you're messing around with globals, if you'd care to explain, I'll update my answer.
class Myclass(object):
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
def mydef():
return Myclass("a1")
a1 = mydef()
print a1.name
Gather your instances in a list:
instances = []
for x in range(1000):
instances.append(Myclass("Instance {0}".format(x)))
print instance[42].name
Note the changes:
Class names should be capitalized
Use object as the base class of your classes (since python 2.2, but no longer necessary in 3.x)
Don't shadow the built-in object with your parameter name
Just use the string "a1" directly as a parameter instead of assigning it to a variable
Return something from the function instead of passing the result by global variable
RE: Comment
You haven't said anything about the format of these files, so I'll just give an example where the file to be read contains one class name per line, and nothing else:
def mydef(filename):
ret = []
with open(filename) as f:
for line in f:
# Call `strip` on line to remove newline and surrounding whitespace
ret.append(Myclass(line.strip()))
return ret
So if you have several files and wish to add all your instances from all your files to a large list, do it like this:
instances = []
for filename in ["myfile1", "myfile2", "myfile3"]:
instances.extend(mydef(filename))
RE: OP Edit
def mydef(filename):
ret = []
with open(filename, "r") as file_han:
for line in file_han:
string_f = line.split('"')[1]
ret.append(Myclass(string_f))
return ret
i = mydef("name_of_file")
RE: Comment
Oh, you want to access them by name. Then return a dict instead:
def mydef(filename):
ret = {}
with open(filename, "r") as file_han:
for line in file_han:
string_f = line.split('"')[1]
ret[string_f] = Myclass(string_f)
return ret
i = mydef("name_of_file")
print i["ghi"].name # should print "ghi"
RE: Comment
If I understand you correctly, you want to have it both ways -- index by both line number and name. Well then why don't you return both a list and a dictionary?
def mydef(filename):
d = {}
L = []
with open(filename, "r") as file_han:
for line in file_han:
string_f = line.split('"')[1]
instance = Myclass(string_f)
d[string_f] = instance
L.append(instance)
return L, d
L, d = mydef("name_of_file")
print d["ghi"].name
print L[3]
print L.index(d["ghi"])
You could use class as repository for your instances, for example
class Named(object):
def __init__(self,name):
self.name = name
def __new__(cls,name):
instance = super(type,cls).__new__(cls,name)
setattr(cls,name,instance)
return instance
def __repr__(self):
return 'Named[%s]'%self.name
Named('hello')
Named('x123')
Named('this is not valid attribute name, but also working')
print(Named.hello,Named.x123,getattr(Named,'this is not valid attribute name, but also working'))