Converting from list to dict with the list's variable name and list index as the keys

Question

My objective is to convert a list to a dictionary with the keys being the variable name of the list and the index value of the list attached to each key. It needs to be generically viable in the form of a function (since I have many lists that need to be converted to key-value pairs). For example, say I have these two lists:

action = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
result = [2, 6, 10, 14, 18]

and I have a function:

def list_to_dict(lst):
 ...
return dict

The output should be something like this:

action_dict = list_to_dict(action)
result_dict = list_to_dict(result)

print(action_dict)
print(result_dict)
>>> {'action_0': 1, 'action_1': 3, 'action_2': 5, 'action_3': 7, 'action_4': 9}
>>> {'result_0': 2, 'result_1': 6, 'result_2': 10, 'result_3': 14, 'result_4': 18}

So far, all I am able to do for the function is enumerate a list and have the index be the key to the respective values.

def list_to_dict(lst):
 dict = {k:v for k, v in enumerate(lst)}
 return dict

>>> {0: 1, 1: 3, 2: 5, 3: 7, 4: 9}

However, I am unable to find a way to have the variable name be in the key as a string. I tried var.__name__ but I think that is limited to functions.

A list does not have the slightest idea of what its variable name is. It might not even *have* a variable name (if it's an element of another list, for example), or there might be multiple variables referring to it. This is simply not a workable approach for your program. — jasonharper, Mar 08 '22 at 22:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 08 '22 at 22:03

1

you can use zip as below

 dic = {k:v for k,v in zip(action,result)}

answered Mar 08 '22 at 22:03

Kannan Kandasamy

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '22 at 22:13

Using retrieve_name by juan Isaza from Getting the name of a variable as a string

import inspect

action = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
result = [2, 6, 10, 14, 18]

def retrieve_name(var):
    """
    Gets the name of var. Does it from the out most frame inner-wards.
    :param var: variable to get name from.
    :return: string
    """
    for fi in reversed(inspect.stack()):
        names = [var_name for var_name, var_val in fi.frame.f_locals.items() if var_val is var]
        if len(names) > 0:
            return names[0]

def list_to_dict(lst):
    name = retrieve_name(lst)
    return {f"{name}_{k}":v for k, v in enumerate(lst)}


action_dict = list_to_dict(action)
result_dict = list_to_dict(result)

print(action_dict)
print(result_dict)

Output:

{'action_0': 1, 'action_1': 3, 'action_2': 5, 'action_3': 7, 'action_4': 9}
{'result_0': 2, 'result_1': 6, 'result_2': 10, 'result_3': 14, 'result_4': 18}

Converting from list to dict with the list's variable name and list index as the keys

2 Answers2