print index name in python

Question

I want to know how to output the name, not the values, of each index (and sub-index) in a list and in sub-lists.

For example, let's say I have a main list, which has 3 other lists each containing 5 sub-lists. Here is a small example to clarify:

List1 = [SubList1, SubList2, SubList3, SubList4, SubList5]
List2 = [Apple, Banana, Orange, Pear, Grape]
List3 = [Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple]


Lists = [List1, List2, List3]

MainList = [Lists]

How can I print out 'List1'?

When I type in

MainList[0][0]

it outputs

[SubList1, SubList2, ..., Sublist5]

I want the actual name of the index, not its values.

I thought about using dictionary keys, but the report generator that I am using for the XML conversion outputs all the data into lists. Does this mean I have no choice but to modify my report generator script to output the data into dictionaries?

Answer 1

Try to use dict() for that purpose:

List1 = ['SubList1', 'SubList2', 'SubList3', 'SubList4', 'SubList5']
List2 = ['Apple', 'Banana', 'Orange', 'Pear', 'Grape']
List3 = ['Red', 'Yellow', 'Orange', 'Green', 'Purple']


xd = {'List1': List1, 'List2': List2, 'List3': List3}

print xd['List1']

for k, v in xd.iteritems():
    if v == List1:
        print k

>>> ['SubList1', 'SubList2', 'SubList3', 'SubList4', 'SubList5']
>>> List1

Answer 2

You seem to misunderstand. List1 in your example is a variable name. It is not stored in the Lists array, only its value is stored. So you are not going to get List1 out of Lists. Array indexes are integers and the index of List1 in Lists is 0. As the other commenter suggested you might want to convert your Lists structure into a dict.

Lists = {}
Lists['List1'] = [SubList1, SubList2, SubList3, SubList4, SubList5]
Lists['List2'] = [Apple, Banana, Orange, Pear, Grape]
Lists['List3'] = [Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple]

print(Lists.keys())