-1

This may be a simple question but I haven't found the answer to this online anywhere. I want to take an argument or input and use that name to create an instance of a class. Is that possible?

Example:

def make_instance(argument):
    # argument = Something() | example if argument = "one", then
    # make instance would create-->  one = Something()
    # and I could do one.do_anything

class Something:
    def do_anything():
        print("anything")

Is this possible? Interpret the content of an argument and use it to create an instance of a class or a variable or anything for that matter. So long as the contents of the argument, whether int or str, becomes the name of the instance of class or name of variable?

user3925300
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
    As a general rule, making variable names out of data is a bad idea. If you absolutely have to do it, a dictionary of instance variables is the way to go. – TheSoundDefense Aug 09 '14 at 15:30
  • 2
    what are you trying to achieve? – Padraic Cunningham Aug 09 '14 at 15:33
  • I'm writing an app that reads text messages from Twilio. The app checks for an incoming number and takes that number to use it as an instance of a class I defined. So I want to take the phone # and instantiate it as an instance of a class. – user3925300 Aug 09 '14 at 15:40
  • Sounds like the phone # should be an attribute of whatever class you wish to instantiate -- and those instances will get stored in some sort of container class like a dictionary, list, etc. – martineau Aug 09 '14 at 18:21

1 Answers1

2

You probably want to do something like

instances = {}
key3 = 12345
instances["one"] = Something()
instances[2] = Something()  # another instance
instances[key3] = Something()  # and another one
jolvi
  • 4,463
  • 2
  • 15
  • 13
  • Hi and thank you for the answer. Again, this may be a super simple thing but I perhaps lack the terminology to ask the question correctly. So say my program checks twilio database and finds that a new text was received by number (800)123-4567. In that case, and by your example I would do: `instances[8001234567] = Something()` Correct? But now if I read the value of the number as a variable so: `new_number = client.list.sent_from() #stores the new # into new_number` then would this work: `instances[new_number] = Something()` ? – user3925300 Aug 10 '14 at 19:22
  • Yes, this seems OK. I edited the example accordingly. The "content of" `new_number` must be immutable (like an `int` is immutable). Of course, you also need to put some info into `Something()` such that all this makes sense. – jolvi Aug 11 '14 at 12:26
  • Thanks so much. Great help and answers exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again. – user3925300 Aug 11 '14 at 14:09