Question

Looking for the python equivalent of this.

http://php.net/extract

Answer 1

One generally uses locals() to achieve this result, but the exact functionality is up to you.

>>> print apple
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'apple' is not defined
>>> print banana
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: name 'banana' is not defined

>>> variables = {"apple" : "a rigid, juicy fruit", "banana" : "a soft, fleshy fruit"}
>>> for variable,value in variables.iteritems():
...  locals()[variable] = value
... 
>>> print apple
a rigid, juicy fruit
>>> print banana
a soft, fleshy fruit

EDIT

Thanks to everyone who has diligently commented on the badness of this approach. I wholeheartedly agree that THIS IS A BAD APPROACH, and it deserves to be mentioned in the actual response for anyone who stumbles across this page. (Never underestimate that; I saw this technique in a code snippet somewhere. I can see why in that particular case it was harmless, but I know I can’t go around encouraging bad methodology just because there are situations in which it won’t break.)