Using Variables for Class Names in Python?

Question

I want to know how to use variables for objects and function names in Python. In PHP, you can do this:

$className = "MyClass";  $newObject = new $className(); 

How do you do this sort of thing in Python? Or, am I totally not appreciating some fundamental difference with Python, and if so, what is it?

Answer 1

Assuming that some_module has a class named "class_name":

import some_module klass = getattr(some_module, "class_name") some_object = klass() 

I should note that you should be careful here: turning strings into code can be dangerous if the string came from the user, so you should keep security in mind in this situation. :)

One other method (assuming that we still are using "class_name"):

class_lookup = { 'class_name' : class_name } some_object = class_lookup['class_name']()  #call the object once we've pulled it out of the dict 

The latter method is probably the most secure way of doing this, so it's probably what you should use if at all possible.

Answer 2

In Python,

className = MyClass newObject = className() 

The first line makes the variable className refer to the same thing as MyClass. Then the next line calls the MyClass constructor through the className variable.

As a concrete example:

>>> className = list >>> newObject = className() >>> newObject [] 

(In Python, list is the constructor for the list class.)

The difference is that in PHP, you represent the name of the class you want to refer to as a string, while in Python you can reference the same class directly. If you must use a string (for example if the name of the class is created dynamically), then you will need to use other techniques.