Dynamically create variables in python

Question

I have a list of images that I am repeatedly calling the same functions for:

first_image = load_image("test1.jpg")
first_image_encoding = pic_encoding(first_image)[0]

second_image = load_image("test2.jpg")
second_image_encoding = pic_encoding(second_image)[0]

After which I need to populate them into an array like this:

encoding_arr = [
    first_image_encoding, 
    second_image_encoding
]

I am trying to do all of this dynamically but need help with the first part for assigning unique variable names to assigned values.

Here is what I have so far:

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(img_dir):
    for f in files:
        first_image = load_image(f)
        first_image_encoding = pic_encoding(first_image)[0]

I am not sure how to get a list of unique variables here instead of manually hard coding them

Why do you think you need to load them into separate variables? Just use a list. — Daniel Roseman, Dec 11 '18 at 19:01
no interest to name them; make a list : image.append(load (image(f))).... You will retrieve them latter. — B. M., Dec 11 '18 at 19:01
Dynamically creating variables is almost never the right way to do things. Use a *container*, like a `list` or a `dict` — juanpa.arrivillaga, Dec 11 '18 at 19:11

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 11 '18 at 19:03

Creating variables dynamically adds excessive overhead of handling them, instead you could directly append to list like so:

encoding_arr = []
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(img_dir):
    for f in files:
        encoding_arr.append(pic_encoding(load_image(f))[0])

Dynamically create variables in python

1 Answers1