Call a function from a stored string in Python [duplicate]

Question

What I need is something that gets the variable and if the variable is the name of a function, the function will be called. I am not trying to get a function from a module but from within the program itself

Example:

def foo():
    print("Foo")
callfunction = input("What function do you want to call? ")

callfunction() ## Not sure what to put here but but lets say callfunction is foo.

I don't want something like this because I have many functions:

if callfunction == "Foo"
    Foo()
else:
    print("No function with that name")

My question is something like this, but I ask for the Python syntax. I am using Python 3.5.1

Answer 1

Use a dict mapping names to functions.

call_dict = {
    'foo': foo,
    'bar': bar
}
call_dict[callfunction]()

Answer 2

You can do this :

eval(input("What function do you want to call? ") + '()')

Answer 3

It is quite common in Python to use the command pattern. First move all of your functions into a class, and give them names which have a prefix that isn't used in the input. Then use getattr() to find the correct function and call it.

class Commands():
   def cmd_foo(self):
       print("Foo")

   def callFunction(self, name):
       fn = getattr(self, 'cmd_'+name, None)
       if fn is not None:
            fn()

This has a couple of advantages over Daniel's call_dict: you don't have to list the name of the functions a second time, and you don't have to list the callable functions a second time either.

The 'cmd_' prefix is there to ensure you can have other methods in the class but still control exactly which ones are directly callable.