How do I create variable variables?

Question

You can use dictionaries to accomplish this. Dictionaries are stores of keys and values.

>>> dct = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3}
>>> dct
{'y': 2, 'x': 1, 'z': 3}
>>> dct["y"]
2

You can use variable key names to achieve the effect of variable variables without the security risk.

>>> x = "spam"
>>> z = {x: "eggs"}
>>> z["spam"]
'eggs'

For cases where you're thinking of doing something like

var1 = 'foo'
var2 = 'bar'
var3 = 'baz'
...

a list may be more appropriate than a dict. A list represents an ordered sequence of objects, with integer indices:

lst = ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']
print(lst[1])           # prints bar, because indices start at 0
lst.append('potatoes')  # lst is now ['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'potatoes']

For ordered sequences, lists are more convenient than dicts with integer keys, because lists support iteration in index order, slicing, append, and other operations that would require awkward key management with a dict.

Use the built-in getattr function to get an attribute on an object by name. Modify the name as needed.

obj.spam = 'eggs'
name = 'spam'
getattr(obj, name)  # returns 'eggs'

It's not a good idea. If you are accessing a global variable you can use globals().

>>> a = 10
>>> globals()['a']
10

If you want to access a variable in the local scope you can use locals(), but you cannot assign values to the returned dict.

A better solution is to use getattr or store your variables in a dictionary and then access them by name.

New coders sometimes write code like this:

my_calculator.button_0 = tkinter.Button(root, text=0)
my_calculator.button_1 = tkinter.Button(root, text=1)
my_calculator.button_2 = tkinter.Button(root, text=2)
...

The coder is then left with a pile of named variables, with a coding effort of O(m * n), where m is the number of named variables and n is the number of times that group of variables needs to be accessed (including creation). The more astute beginner observes that the only difference in each of those lines is a number that changes based on a rule, and decides to use a loop. However, they get stuck on how to dynamically create those variable names, and may try something like this:

for i in range(10):
    my_calculator.('button_%d' % i) = tkinter.Button(root, text=i)

They soon find that this does not work.

If the program requires arbitrary variable "names," a dictionary is the best choice, as explained in other answers. However, if you're simply trying to create many variables and you don't mind referring to them with a sequence of integers, you're probably looking for a list. This is particularly true if your data are homogeneous, such as daily temperature readings, weekly quiz scores, or a grid of graphical widgets.

This can be assembled as follows:

my_calculator.buttons = []
for i in range(10):
    my_calculator.buttons.append(tkinter.Button(root, text=i))

This list can also be created in one line with a comprehension:

my_calculator.buttons = [tkinter.Button(root, text=i) for i in range(10)]

The result in either case is a populated list, with the first element accessed with my_calculator.buttons[0], the next with my_calculator.buttons[1], and so on. The "base" variable name becomes the name of the list and the varying identifier is used to access it.

Finally, don't forget other data structures, such as the set - this is similar to a dictionary, except that each "name" doesn't have a value attached to it. If you simply need a "bag" of objects, this can be a great choice. Instead of something like this:

keyword_1 = 'apple'
keyword_2 = 'banana'

if query == keyword_1 or query == keyword_2:
    print('Match.')

You will have this:

keywords = {'apple', 'banana'}
if query in keywords:
    print('Match.')

Use a list for a sequence of similar objects, a set for an arbitrarily-ordered bag of objects, or a dict for a bag of names with associated values.

Whenever you want to use variable variables, it's probably better to use a dictionary. So instead of writing

$foo = "bar"
$$foo = "baz"

you write

mydict = {}
foo = "bar"
mydict[foo] = "baz"

This way you won't accidentally overwrite previously existing variables (which is the security aspect) and you can have different "namespaces".

Use globals()

You can actually assign variables to global scope dynamically, for instance, if you want 10 variables that can be accessed on a global scope i_1, i_2 ... i_10:

for i in range(10):
    globals()['i_{}'.format(i)] = 'a'

This will assign 'a' to all of these 10 variables, of course you can change the value dynamically as well. All of these variables can be accessed now like other globally declared variable:

>>> i_5
'a'