Is there a python equivalent to javascript's shorthand for setting key:value pairs where the local variable name is the same as the key name?

Question

In javascript, say we have two local variables name and age, and we want to create an object literal (dictionary) in the form:

let person = {
    name: name,
    age: age
}

This assignment can be shortened to this statement with the same outcome:

let person = {
    name,
    age
}

Is there an equivalent shorthand for this in python? Or do dictionaries have to be written like this?

person = {
    "name": name,
    "age": age
}

No, python doesn't have this kind of shorthand. It also doesn't have destructuring, to save you another question. — Barmar, Aug 28 '23 at 22:32
You could call `locals()` to get _all_ of the local variables. — tdelaney, Aug 28 '23 at 23:28
@jabaa One-liner answers like this are not generally considered good. I'm not sure how to provide supporting documentation, it's proving a negative. — Barmar, Aug 28 '23 at 23:28

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 28 '23 at 23:33

No, there's nothing built-in that does this.

You could define a function that does it, but you'd have to pass it the locals() dictionary so it can access those variables.

def dictvars(l, *names):
    return {name: l[name] if name in l else globals()[name] for name in names}

name = "myname"
def makeperson(age):
    person = dictvars(locals(), "name", "age")
    return person

print(makeperson(20)) # {'name': 'myname', 'age': 20}

Is there a python equivalent to javascript's shorthand for setting key:value pairs where the local variable name is the same as the key name?

1 Answers1