I'm asking a question similar to this, but with python 2.7 instead. I know that I'm the same asker of the question, but the answer should be different. Here's the link.
How to make a variable name without creating an array in C++?
I looked up Data Structures on the python website, but I have no idea what they're talking about. Any help or guidance appreciated!
If you are looking for a structure that is similar to std::map in C++, you should use dict. It is a dictionary, that can have any hashable object as key (a string, a tuple, an integer). For example:
x = dict()
x['a'] = 5
x[6] = MyObject()
As you can see this is more powerful than std::map, because keys might have different types and values too.
If you want to assign a class, you also can do this:
class MyClass:
pass
x[1] = MyClass
but maybe you are interested in having an instance of this class? This also is possible (on the same dict):
x[1] = MyClass() # this creates an instance
In general the data structure you are looking for is a key-value mapping. Depending on language or library the name for this structure will likely be on of the following: dictionary, hash table, associative array, hash. Those are the common names though.
In python they are called dictionaries. And are created with {}. Whereas a list in python would be created with [].
A basic example would be this:
a={}
a[5]='a'
a[3]=0
print a
Output: {3: 0, 5: 'a'}
You could do something like the following:
globals()['foo'] = 10
or
locals()['foo'] = 10
And then you can access foo by its name after that. From your other question, it seems like your asking how do you make an array (in Python, it's usually a list) without using square brackets.
Unlike C/C++, you do not need to declare the type of a Python variable, so you can do something like:
foo = []
or
foo = list()
Where the variable named 'foo' references a value with a list (like an array) type.
