Question

My question is how to create variables "on the fly". I’m trying to generate an object with a random set of attributes.

from random import randint, choice

class Person(object):
    def __init__(self):
      self.attributes = []    

possible_attributes= ['small', 'black', 'scary', 'smelly', 'happy'] # idk, random
chance = randint(1,5)

chosen_attributes = []
for i in xrange(chance):
    #psuedo code...
    local_var = choice(possible_attributes)
    if local_var not in chosen_attributes:
        VAR = local_var # VAR needs to be dynamic and 'global' for use later on
        chosen_attributes.append(local_var)
        Person.attributes.append(local_var)

I’m positive how I’m wanting to do this is not a good way, so if anyone understand what I’m looking for and can offer a better method (one that works, for starters) I would be most appreciative.

Answer 1

To add attributes to an instance of the class you can use .__dict__:

class Person(object):
    def addattr(self,x,val):
        self.__dict__[x]=val

output:

>>> a=Person()
>>> a.addattr('foo',10)
>>> a.addattr('bar',20)
>>> a.foo
10
>>> a.bar
20
>>> b=Person()
>>> b.addattr('spam','somevalue')
>>> b.spam
'somevalue'