Question

Is there a way to do what I’m trying to do here:

for item in [self.docket_numbers, self.neutral_citations,
             self.lower_courts, self.lower_court_judges,
             self.dispositions, self.judges, self.nature_of_suit]:
    if item is not None:
        item = [clean_string(sub_item) for sub_item in item]

Obviously, in the last line, I need to assign the result of the list interpretation back to the object…but I’m not sure how.

Answer 1

If the various items are lists, which it kind of looks like they are, you don’t need setattr, you can simply change them in-place:

>>> def clean_string(s):
...     return ''.join(c for c in s if c != '7')
... 
>>> class Court(object):
...     def __init__(self):
...         self.docket_numbers = ["a1", "b277"]
...         self.dispositions = ["happy", "sad77"]
...     def clean(self):
...         for item in [self.docket_numbers, self.dispositions]:
...             if item is not None:
...                 item[:] = [clean_string(sub_item) for sub_item in item]
... 
>>> C = Court()
>>> vars(C)
{'dispositions': ['happy', 'sad77'], 'docket_numbers': ['a1', 'b277']}
>>> C.clean()
>>> vars(C)
{'dispositions': ['happy', 'sad'], 'docket_numbers': ['a1', 'b2']}