Better Method in Python to Call Changed Dict Values Than This?

Question

class hero():

    def __init__(self, name="Jimmy", prof="Warrior", weapon="Sword"):
        """Constructor for hero"""
        self.name = name
        self.prof = prof
        self.weapon = weapon
        self.herodict = {
            "Name": self.name,
            "Class": self.prof,
            "Weapon": self.weapon
        }
        self.herotext = {
            "Welcome": "Greetings, hero. What is thine name? ",
            "AskClass": "A fine name %s. What is thine class? " % self.herodict['Name'],
            "AskWeapon": "A %s ? What shalt thy weapon be? " % self.herodict['Class'],
        }

    def setHeroDict(self, textkey, herokey):
        n = raw_input(self.herotext[textkey])
        self.herodict[herokey] = n
        print self.herodict[herokey]



h = hero("Tommy", "Mage", "Staff")
h.setHeroDict("Welcome", "Name")
h.setHeroDict("AskClass", "Class")

Alright so, I asked this once before here and a smart fellow told me to try using lambdas. I tried it and it worked. Great! However my question here is a bit different. As I stated there, Im pretty new at this, and have a good deal of holes in my knowledge that im trying to fill. Basically.. how do I do this better without having to use lambdas (or do people usually use lambdas for this?)

What im trying to do:

1. Have a hero class with some variables that have some defaults attached to them.
2. I then want to use a definition that can go and use my herotext to use one of the values to ask a question.
3. The user then answers the question, and that defenition goes and changes the appropriate value in herodict

Problem im trying to get passed: In my herotext I have a value that itself points to a key in herodict. As explained in the link, this I have learned is due to the herodict being initialized to the default values along with herotext before a user can provide input. So it prints out the default (Tommy in this case) name instead of the new user input name in the "AskClass" self.herodict['Name'] value.

How do I fix this? I dont mind if I have to make another file or whatever, I just want to know what is a more logical way of doing this sort of thing? Ive been stuck on this all day and my mind is friend. I know it may be simple to a lot of you and Im hoping you will share your knowledge.

Thanks

Answer 1

Here you go. This is a pretty clean method to do it. Shortly, I'll post my version of your class. :-) (well, I was going to, but this is already pretty prolix..)

class hero():
    def __init__(self, name="Jimmy", prof="Warrior", weapon="Sword"):
        """Constructor for hero"""
        self.name = name
        self.prof = prof
        self.weapon = weapon
        self.herodict = {
            "Name": self.name,
            "Class": self.prof,
            "Weapon": self.weapon
        }
        self.herotext = {
            "Welcome": "Greetings, hero. What is thine name? ",
            "AskClass": "A fine name {Name}. What is thine class? ",
            "AskWeapon": "A {Class}? What shalt thy weapon be? ",
        }

    def setHeroDict(self, textkey, herokey):
        n = raw_input(self.herotext[textkey].format(**self.herodict))
        self.herodict[herokey] = n
        print self.herodict[herokey]


h = hero("Tommy", "Mage", "Staff")
h.setHeroDict("Welcome", "Name")
h.setHeroDict("AskClass", "Class")

Explanation:

'format' is just a newer thing that does about what % does. The line above could have used the % method too. These two are equivalent:

"Hello, {foo}".format(**{'foo': 'bar'})
"Hello, %(foo)s!" % {'foo': 'bar'}

Either way, the idea is to avoid overwriting your template string. At the time you were creating your string templates, you were using them, then assigning the value to a variable.

Just as 5 * 10 always gets replaced with 50, 'meow%s' % 'meow!' is always replaced with "meow meow!". The five, ten, and both meows are automatically garbage collected, unless there's a reference to them elsewhere.

>>> print 5 * 10
50
>>> # the five, ten, and the 50 are now gone.
>>> template = "meow {}"
>>> template.format('splat!')
'meow splat!'
>>> # 'splat!' and 'meow splat!' are both gone, but your template still exists.
>>> template
'meow {}'
>>> template = template % 'hiss!'  # this evaluates to "template = 'meow hiss!'"
>>> template  # our template is now gone, replaced with 'meow hiss!' 
'meow hiss!'

..so, store your template in a variable, and and don't 'save over' them with the strings you create using them, unless you're done with the template and it makes sense to do so.

Answer 2

Do you need to use dictionaries? I think it could be more straightforward if you use simple class variables.

class Hero:
def __init__(self, name = "Jimmy", prof = "Warrior", weapon="Sword"):
    self.name = name
    self.prof = prof
    self.weapon = weapon

and then use a separate function to ask the user for info.

def create_hero():
    name = input("Greetings, hero. What is thine name? ")
    prof = input("A fine name %s. What is thine class?" % name)
    weapon = input("A %s ? What shalt thy weapon be?" % prof)
    return hero(name, prof, weapon)

run it with h = create_hero()

Dictionaries are typically used for data in the same style as associative lists (ie a set of pairs).