Question

I want to do following. Script has some python code as a string (saved in a variable) and is it possible to run that code ?

Well, I know one way, writing that string to a file & running it, but I don’t want that. Without creating any extra file, is it possible to run it ?

Here is a example :

let’s assume my python file has following content

#this is a main python file
content = ''' print 'hello!'
                   print 'this is from sub python code' '''
print 'from main python'

The content string has a python code & I want to run it. Is it possible ?

Hope I am clear. Thank you !

Answer 1

I’ll say this up front: This is a terrible idea, and depending on the source of the string a serious security risk.

That disclaimer out of the way, python has an exec function that executes a string containing python code. For example:

exec("print 2+2")

Edit: I originally used eval in my answer, which is useful for evaluating individual expressions, while exec can be used for more general execution of arbitrary python code in a string.

Relevant docs:

http://docs.python.org/2/reference/simple_stmts.html#exec

http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#eval