Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions! I haven't quite decided which approach I'll take, but it's nice to have some options.
Paul Tom Anderson wrote: >On Fri, 21 Oct 2005, Paul Dale wrote: > > > >>Is it possible to bind a list member or variable to a variable such that >> >>temp = 5 >>list = [ temp ] >>temp == 6 >>list >> >>would show >> >>list = [ 6 ] >> >> > >As you know by now, no. Like any problem in programming, this can be >solved with a layer of abstraction: you need an object which behaves a bit >like a variable, so that you can have multiple references to it. The >simplest solution is to use a single-element list: > > > >>>>temp = [None] # set up the list >>>>temp[0] = 5 >>>>list = [temp] >>>>temp[0] = 6 >>>>list >>>> >>>> >[[6]] > >I think this is a bit ugly - the point of a list is to hold a sequence of >things, so doing this strikes me as a bit of an abuse. > >An alternative would be a class: > >class var: > def __init__(self, value=None): > self.value = value > def __str__(self): # not necessary, but handy > return "<<" + str(self.val) + ">>" > > > >>>>temp = var() >>>>temp.value = 5 >>>>list = [temp] >>>>temp.value = 6 >>>>list >>>> >>>> >[<<6>>] > >This is more heavyweight, in terms of both code and execution resources, >but it makes your intent clearer, which might make it worthwhile. > >tom > > > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
