python list of variables, retrieve value of variable by variable name

Question

if i have the code:

attRoll = 34
hit = False
dmg = 1

attSequence = [attRoll, hit, dmg]

print attSequence[dmg]

it prints the value of hit (False) and not dmg (1), i can work around this by entering:

print attSequence[dmg+1]

my questions:
-why doesn't it print the value of dmg?
-is there a clean way (without the +1) to retrieve the value of hit?

thanks!

Brendan Long · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-19 00:00:28Z

2

attSequence is a list, and dmg is 1, so attSequence[1] means "Give me the item at index 1 (the second item) in attSequence". For what you're doing, you probably want a dictionary (usually called a map in other languages), which stores key/value mappings, so you could store the damage with a key of "dmg":

att = {
    "roll": attRoll,
    "hit": hit,
    "dmg": dmg
}
print att["dmg"]

You can also put literals in a map, so you could do this:

att = {
    "roll": 34,
    "hit": False,
    "dmg": 1
}

edited Jun 19, 2013 at 0:00

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 22:44

Brendan Long

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3 Comments

2rs2ts Over a year ago

Unless roll, hit, and dmg are defined, that's not going to work. (Better to use a class for this anyway, but, the simple solution is to use "roll" etc.) I'm sure you meant to use quotes for that though :P

Brendan Long Over a year ago

@2rs2ts Right you are. I think I've been doing too much JavaScript.. I agree that a class may be better, but based on my own learning experience, it'll take time before the advantages become obvious, especially in a language like Python, where classes are just glorified maps anyway..

Brendan Long Over a year ago

@LennartWijers You probably want to look at the updated version. My old one would appear to work (since roll, hit, and dmg were defined), but wouldn't do quite what you expect.

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