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I have this bit of code:

from ast import literal_eval

# evil exec loop                                                                               
param_dict = literal_eval(sys.argv[1])                                                         

for key in param_dict.keys():                                                                  
    if type(param_dict[key]) != str:                                                           
        exec(key+"={}".format(param_dict[key]))                                                
    else:                                                                                      
        exec(key+"='{}".format(param_dict[key])+"'")

please don't judge me on my use of exec. A) this code is only for myself, and I trust my input and B) I find constantly referring to the dictionary as opposed to normal variables tedious. That being said, if you know of a better way to do this, I am open to it.

Now to my question. I would like to take this code and put it into a function in a different file, and then only call this function with the dictionary (or the string representing it) as an argument. But when I tried that, the program cannot find the variable names. I am guessing that these variables stay within the scope of the function, which is why they cannot be seen outside of it. Is there a way around this (without using global)?

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  • You want to access variables created inside a function, but you don't want to use globals? Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 11:29
  • If possible. I want to use the variables in the scope just above the function, but not beyond. Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 11:39
  • How many variables are we talking about? I would probably just write them out manually. Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 12:13
  • This code is for running different simulations on a cluster. Which means a) there may be quite a few (last time I did something like this, there were over 50) and b) they can be different for different types of programs, and I don't want to manually write them out every time. The dictionary maps parameters to their values, and I want to be able to use the parameter names in the simulations in a straightforaward manner. Commented Apr 16, 2020 at 12:27
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