Re: Help please: How to assign an object name at runtime

c0chong@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
Good day:
Probably the answer to my question is staring me in the face, but the
solution escapes me.

The following is the input line of the file: SoftDict-.csv:
  ca1017,GRPHScriptSet,ADD/REM,Adobe Acrobat 4.0=2005/06/14

I expected an instance of Machine() to be created with a name ca1017.

There is absolutely no basis at all for this expectation. How did you arrive at it?


Instead, an object is assigned to l[0] named:
   <__main__.Machine instance at 0x01282558>

The object is assigned to l[0] exactly as you dictated, i.e. its name is l[0]. The former referent of l[0] i.e. the string whose value is "ca1017" is no longer in view and will be garbage-collected.

What are you really wanting to do?

BTW, don't use "l".


-----------------------------
Here is my code:

class Machine:
    def __init__(self):
        self.software = []# Holds attributes of the instance


Do you mean like self.software ultimately =
['GRPHScriptSet', 'ADD/REM', 'Adobe Acrobat 4.0=2005/06/14'] ?

That's not quite what the man meant when he said 'object-oriented'!!

    def add(self, sware):
        self.software.append(sware)# Append attribute
        return self.software
    def show(self):
        return self.software
    def __call__(self):
        return [ e for e in self.software]


Isn't that the same as "return self.software"?

So obj.show() and obj() return an attribute of obj? That's an "interesting" interface.

Lose the __call__ -- you don't need it.


    def cnt(self):
        return '%s' % (len(self.software))


Why not just return the length as an integer???

    def installed(self, sware):
        if sware in self.software:
            return True
        else:
            return False


Try "return sware in self.software"


class FileList:
    def __init__(self, filename):
        self.file = open(filename, 'r')     # open and save file
    def __getitem__(self, i):               # overload indexing
        line = self.file.readline()
        if line:
            return line                     # return the next line
        else:
            raise IndexError                # end 'for' loops, 'in'
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        return getattr(self.file, name)     # other attrs


if __name__ == '__main__':

    import sys, fileinput, os, string	# when run, not imported

    for line in FileList('SoftDict-.csv'): # Treat .csv as a text
        if len(line)==1: break	# Quit processing; end of file
        l=line.split(',')# Split the line into constituent parts
        l[0]=Machine()	# Create a Machine() object named: ca1017
-------------------------------------------

That's it. I evidently have no idea what I am doing.

The whole FileList class is pointless. Step 1: replace """for line in FileList(filename):"""

with """for line in open(filename):"""

and lose the """if .... : break""" line.

Step 2: read up on the csv module, and lose the "split".

Step 3: you are unlikely to *ever* need the string and fileinput modules

Step 4: you import 4 modules you don't use. Why?

Oh and BTW Step 0: what are the requirements for this exercise, what do the fields in the file actually represent, what is that bloody = sign between 'Adobe Acrobat' and the date aaaarrrggghhhh words fail me [finally]


.... exiting in pursuit of paracetamol,
John
.

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