Question

I want to know how to use variables for objects and function names in Python. In PHP, you can do this:

$className = 'MyClass';  $newObject = new $className(); 

How do you do this sort of thing in Python? Or, am I totally not appreciating some fundamental difference with Python, and if so, what is it?

Answer 1

In Python,

className = MyClass newObject = className() 

The first line makes the variable className refer to the same thing as MyClass. Then the next line calls the MyClass constructor through the className variable.

As a concrete example:

>>> className = list >>> newObject = className() >>> newObject [] 

(In Python, list is the constructor for the list class.)

The difference is that in PHP, you represent the name of the class you want to refer to as a string, while in Python you can reference the same class directly. If you must use a string (for example if the name of the class is created dynamically), then you will need to use other techniques.