Create variable for each iteration of a for loop

[Dave Elfers]

Hello, I am using a for loop to iterate through an array and need to assign each iteration to a new variable, such as

arr = ['bread', 'milk', 'cheese']
for i in arr:
    print i
 

but instead of printing i, I want the for lopp to assign each iteration to a unique variable, so that when the for loop completes

var1 = 'bread' 
var2 = 'milk'
var3 = 'cheese' 
 

I will use these variables later on in the script. I will not always know how many items are in the array and need the script to generate a new variable for each iteration. Any ideas?

[bvdet]

One way is to encapsulate the variables in an object.

class Vars(object):
 
    def __init__(self, *args):
        for i, value in enumerate(args):
            setattr(self, "var%s" % (i), value)
 
    def get(self):
        return self.__dict__
 
obj = Vars("milk", "bread", "cheese")
print obj.get()

Output: >>> {'var1': 'bread', 'var0': 'milk', 'var2': 'cheese'}

[dwblas]

You already have that capability with a list. No alteration necessary:

a_list = ['bread', 'milk', 'cheese']
print a_list[1]  ## instead of var2
 
for ctr in len(a_list):
    print ctr, a_list[ctr] 

[bvdet]

I think he is really wanting this:

>>> for i, value in enumerate(["milk", "bread", "cheese"]):
...     exec "var%s=value" % (i)
...     
>>> var1
'bread'
>>> 

[Dave Elfers]

Yes, that is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you much!!

[ray214]

After you get all the variable var1, var2, var3, how would you store them in a list?