"It's me" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > In REXX, for instance, one can do a: > > interpret y' = 4' > > Since y contains a, then the above statement amongs to: > > a = 4 > > There are many situations where this is useful. For instance, you might be > getting an input which is a string representing the name of a variable and > you wish to evaluate the expression (like a calculator application, for > instance).
In Python, the canonical advice for this situation is, "Use a dictionary." This has a number of advantages, including keeping your user's namespace separate from your application's namespace. Plus it's easier to debug and maintain the code. But, if you absolutely, positively have to refer to your variable indirectly, you could do: exec "%s = 4" % y If y refers to the string "a", this will cause the variable a to refer to the value 4. -- I don't actually read my hotmail account, but you can replace hotmail with excite if you really want to reach me. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
