defining multiple variables to an empty list in a loop

Question

I am trying to create and assign 10 variables, only differenciated by their index, all as empty lists within a for loop.

The ideal output would be to have agent_1 = [], agent_2 = [], agent_n = []

I know I could write this all out but thought I should be able to create a simple loop. The main issue is assigning the empty list over each iteration

for i in range(1,10):
    agent_ + i = []

When your trying to make a bunch of variables like agent_1 agent_2 it’s a sign you should be using a list instead and using agent[1] etc. — Mark
– Mark, Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:58
Don't do this even if you find a way. Use a 2 dimensional list instead, i.e. agent = [] before the loop and then agent[i] = [] inside, and then access to elements using agent[n][m]. — Selcuk
– Selcuk, Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 5:58
1. Python doesn't care about the name of the variable, foo =1 and baz = 1, don't matter, so it will not let you do this. 2. As many already mentioned a 2-D list is the way to do it. — anand_v.singh
– anand_v.singh, Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 6:02
@Selcuk nice idea, I wrote this but seems like something is lightly off: agent , value = [] , [] for i in range(1,10): agent.append(value) print(agent[0][2]) — madman
– madman, Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 6:32
@madman You can post this as a new question explaining what is wrong with it. — Selcuk
– Selcuk, Commented Apr 12, 2019 at 6:42

prashant · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-12 06:17:49Z

3

Why don't you use dict object with keys equal to agent_i.

dic = {}
for i in range(1,10):
    dic["agent_" + str(i)] = []

// access the dic directly and iterating purpose also just iterate through the dictionary.
print dic["agent_1"]
# iteration over the dictionary
for key,value in dic.items():
    print key,value

Here is the link to code snippet

edited Apr 12, 2019 at 6:17

answered Apr 12, 2019 at 6:05

prashant

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Comments

dpkp · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-12 06:05:54Z

0

This is a horrible idea. I will let the code speak for itself:

n = 10
for i in range(n):
    globals()['agent_%d' % (i + 1)] = []

answered Apr 12, 2019 at 6:05

dpkp

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Karnikamit · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-12 06:12:36Z

-2

a = {} 
for i in xrange(10):
    ab = "{}_{}".format("agent", i)
    a[ab] = []

print a
#OP 
{'agent_0': [], 'agent_1': [], 'agent_2': [], 'agent_3': [], 'agent_4': [], 'agent_5': [], 'agent_6': [], 'agent_7': [], 'agent_8': [], 'agent_9': []}

answered Apr 12, 2019 at 6:12

Karnikamit

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1 Comment

Matt C Over a year ago

Could you add an explanation of what your code does and why it's the right solution?

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