How to display actual values using .format()?

Question

I have lists a1, a2, ... , a16 with certain values.

For example:

a1 = [1, 17, 33, 49, 65, 81, 97]

Then I'm creating a dictionary which makes use of these lists:

dct = {'0110': a1}

And then I try to create a reference to the variables using the following:

x = 1
x2 = 'a{0}'.format(x)

However when I print(x2) the value being returned is a1 and not [1, 17, 33, 49, 65, 81, 97]

How do I get the actual output of the original a1?

Can you provide the steps to reproduce the problem? i.eShow the code to create your variables, construct your list, run your command x2 =... and then your print statements ? and then tell us what you expect to be shown — Alan Kavanagh, Nov 29 '17 at 12:09
Your description of the question is not at all clear. Try explaining it a little better. — hspandher, Nov 29 '17 at 12:09
The point is that if you remove the format method, you have the same question — OneCricketeer, Nov 29 '17 at 12:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '17 at 12:12

1

When you create the variable x2 i.e (x2 = 'a{0}.format(x)) - you are creating a new variable x2 as a string which contains the letters of your variable name, not as an actual reference to the variable.

If you want to get the value of your variable based on a string, you need to access the globals() dictionary

>>> a1 = 1
>>> a2 = 2
>>> mylist = [a1, a2]
>>> x = 1
>>> x2 = 'a{0}'.format(x)
>>> print(x2)
a1
>>> print(globals()[x2])
1

answered Nov 29 '17 at 12:12

Alan Kavanagh

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And after the case :) Thanks :) – Tomasz Przemski Nov 29 '17 at 12:23
This is works, but almost never the right approach. better to create a dict like `{'a1': 1}` – Chris_Rands Nov 29 '17 at 12:39

How to display actual values using .format()?

1 Answers1