Python: Accessing an instance's method via a variable name?

Question

A python beginner here. Sorry if this question is dumb. I am simply trying to access an instance classes' method ( addComponentToIC ) via a "variablized" object/instance name read in from a dictionary.

I create a dictionary looks like this:

qaDict = {} # a place to store the DSIDs/names for later use

jd = r.findDSIDs('My QA Team', 'External') # make the call to get unique IDs

for a in jd:

(a['lastName']).lower() + '_' + (a['firstName']).lower() #name the object   using "last_name_firstName"
if a['dsid'] not in blacklistedDSIDs:
    globals()[qaperson] = Ic(a['dsid'], a['lastName'], a['firstName']) ## create the Ic object
    qaDict[a['dsid']] = qaperson  ## add person to list of DSIDs

Then I want to take those IDs and grab all the components they are verifier on:

for key, value in qaDict.items():

    jd = r.findComponents(key)  
    getattr(value, 'addComponentToIC')(jd['id'], jd['name'])

I get a : AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'addComponentToIC'

I have also tried:

for key, value in qaDict.items():

    jd = r.findComponents(key)  
    value.addComponentToIC(jd['id'], jd['name'])

That also throws the same error. So it seems like it's something to do with the variable name "value", not actually being interpreted as the instance name. It is supposed to wind up looking like:

employees_name.addComponentToIC(jd['id'], jd['name']) 

-- where "employees_name" is an instance of the class previously created, but it doesn't work. I know there is something silly I am not understanding here ;-) Any help would be greatly appreciated!

My Class looks like this:

class Ic(object):

    'This is a class for QA folks'

    empCount = 0

    @classmethod
    def displayEmployeeCount(class_obj):
        print ("The total employee count is %d" % Ic.empCount)

    def __string__(self):
        return str(self)

    def __init__(self, dsid, fname, lname):

        self.dsid = dsid
        self.fname = fname
        self.lname = lname
        self.name = fname + ' ' + lname
        Ic.empCount += 1
        self.ticketCount = 0
        self.componentCount = 0
        self.componentDict = {}
        self.componentName = ''
        #Ic.instances.add(self)

    def addComponentToIC(self, componentID, componentName):
        self.componentName = componentName
        self.componentID = componentID
        self.componentDict[componentID] = componentName

    @classmethod
    def get_instances(cls):
        return list(Ic.instances)

    def addTicketCount(self, count):
        self.ticketCount += count

    def addComponentCount(self, count):
        self.componentCount += count

    def displayComponentNumber(self):
        print (self.name, " has ", len(self.componentDict), " number of components.")

    def displayEmployee(self):
        print ("Name: ", self.name, "DSID: ", self.dsid, "Count: ", self.ticketCount, ", Component Count: ", len(self.componentDict))

    def displayComponentDict(self):
        print ("This employee is verifier for the following components: ", self.componentDict)

Answer 1

qaperson will always point to the unicode object. To access the value of the global name that is pointed to qaperson, you have to access it through globals(). Here is an example of what is happening.

>>> class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self, n):
        self.n = n
    def bar(self):
        print self.n, 'bar!'

>>> x = 'k'
>>> globals()[x] = Foo(x)
>>> x
'k'
>>> x.bar()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#38>", line 1, in <module>
    x.bar()
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'bar'
>>> k
<__main__.Foo object at 0x03FD02F0>
>>> k.bar()
k bar!
>>> globals()[x]
<__main__.Foo object at 0x03FD02F0>
>>> globals()[x].bar()
k bar!
>>> 
>>> d = {1:x}
>>> d
{1: 'k'}
>>> d[1].bar()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#45>", line 1, in <module>
    d[1].bar()
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'bar'
>>> globals()[d[1]]
<__main__.Foo object at 0x03FD02F0>
>>> globals()[d[1]].bar()
k bar!
>>>

Maybe you should just use the IC instance for the qaDict values:

if a['dsid'] not in blacklistedDSIDs:
    ic = Ic(a['dsid'], a['lastName'], a['firstName']) ## create the Ic object
    globals()[qaperson] = ic
    qaDict[a['dsid']] = ic  ## add person to list of DSIDs
    # or
    #qaDict[ic.dsid] = ic

Then using my example, you would use it like this

>>> x = 'k'
>>> f = Foo(x)
>>> d = dict()
>>> d[f.n] = f
>>> d
{'k': <__main__.Foo object at 0x03FC2A70>}
>>> for k,v in d.items():
    print k
    v.bar()

k
k bar!
>>> 

Answer 2

I got this sorted out--thanks to all for your help. I tried to figure out how to "choose" the answer from WWii, but it won't let me upvote it. This site is kind of hard to figure out for me too--not just python.

Anyway, here is what I eventually got working:

objs = []
for a in jd:

    fullname = (a['lastName']).lower() + '_' + (a['firstName']).lower() #name the object using "last_name_firstName"

    if a['dsid'] not in blacklistedDSIDs:

        x = Ic(fullname, a['dsid'])
        objs.append(x)

for employee in objs:
    employee.addTicketCount(5)

for employee in objs:
    employee.displayEmployee()