Obtaining a variables' name

Question

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a variable's name in python? Something like: get_name(x) -> "x"

Answer 1

Schindlabua, Anna, HonFu Thank you for the explanations of the problem and the code examples. I think the best I could do is to return a list of all variables with that value - apart from the trivial solution of providing the variable's name as input, which I wanted to avoid :-)

names = []
for i in globals():
if globals()[i] == x:
names.append(i)

Answer 2

You can access the namespace dictionaries where the variable names are stored, for example with the functions locals and globals.

Not sure if that's what you need.

Answer 3

Use a dictionary or a namedtuple

https://code.sololearn.com/cAbbhyvgWDly/?ref=app

Answer 4

Ah. No, you're out of luck. I think the best you can do is pass the variable name along as a string.

(To understand why it wouldn't work: A hypothetical `get_name(x)` would either print "x" every time and essentially do nothing, or it would need to know what variable you stored into the variable x. But then, what would

a = 4
b = a
c = b
get_name(c)

even output?)

Answer 5

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but if you are writing a statement like `get_name(x)` you already know the name of the variable, and you can just write "x" yourself.

What are you trying to do with that?

Answer 6

I am writing a function that analyzes a variable and prints out its properties (type, id, ...). It would be nice to print the variable's name as well

Answer 7

https://code.sololearn.com/c63rnM2Z58dp/?ref=app