Get names of *args in a python method

Question

I am not sure if it is possible. But suppose I have some python class with constructor as follows:

class SomeClass(object):

    def __init__(self, *args):
        pass
        # here I want to iterate over args
        # get name of each arg

Suppose I use this class somewhere and create an instance of it:

some_var = SomeClass(user, person, client, doctor)

What I mean by get name of arg, is to get names ('user', 'person', 'client' and 'doctor')

I really mean just get string name of a argument. Where user, person etc. are some python objects with their attributes etc, but I only need the name of how these variables (objects) are named.

Then why not just pass in a string? `SomeClass("user", "person", "client", "doctor")`? — Sweeper, Jun 13 '17 at 06:06
@Sweeper, no I mean those args are objects, they just named as 'user' etc — yerassyl, Jun 13 '17 at 06:10
@ArpitSolanki, yes I know, but I am wondering if it is possible to do without kwargs. — yerassyl, Jun 13 '17 at 06:11
@Sweeper, when you declare an instance of some class, you name it, right. Then you may pass it to some method (ex user, person). I want to get this name as string. The name of variable. — yerassyl, Jun 13 '17 at 06:13
Try this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1538342/how-can-i-get-the-name-of-an-object-in-python — Sweeper, Jun 13 '17 at 06:15

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 14 '17 at 14:38

4

*args should be used when you are unsure how many arguments will be passed to your function
**kwargs lets you to handle named arguments that you have not defined in advance (kwargs = keyword arguments)

So **kwargs is a dictionary added to the parameters.

https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/controlflow.html#arbitrary-argument-lists

edited Jun 14 '17 at 14:38

Jurosh

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answered Jun 13 '17 at 06:18

Drahoš Maďar

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 13 '17 at 06:45

Use **kwargs and setattr like this:

class SomeClass(object):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        for key, value in kwargs.items():
            setattr(self, key, value)

and you'll get access to the keywords and the values as well, no matter which type they are.

Get names of *args in a python method

2 Answers2