[FIXED] Run and evaluate imported text file in place as Python code

Issue

I have some Python code that is generated dynamically and stored in a text file. It basically consists of various variables like lists and strings that store data. This information is fed to a class to instantiate different objects. How can I feed the data from the text files into the class?

Here is my class:

class SomethingA(Else):
    def construct(self):
        // feed_data_a_here
        self.call_method()

class SomethingB(Else):
    def construct(self):
        // feed_data_b_here
        self.call_method()

Here is some sample content from the text_a file. As you can see, this is some valid Python code that I need to feed directly into the object. The call the call_method() depends on this data for the output.

self.height = 12
self.id = 463934
self.name = 'object_a'

Is there any way to load this data into the class without manually copying and pasting all of its from the text file one by one?

Thanks.

Solution

I would probably write a parser for your files which would delete 'self.' at the beginning and add the variable to the dictionary:

import re

# You could use more apprpriate regex depending on expected var names
regex = 'self\.(?P<var_name>\D+\d*) = (?P<var_value>.*)'
attributes= dict()
with open(path) as file:
    for line in file:
        search = re.search(regex, line)
        var_name = search.group(var_name)
        var_value = search.group(var_value).strip() # remove accidentalwhite spaces
        attributes[var_name] = var_value

foo = classA(**attributes)

example of the regex in work

Edit

If you use the code I've proposed, all items in the dictionary will be of the string type. Probably you can try:

• eval(), as proposed by @Welgriv but with small modification:

eval(f'attributes[{var_name}] = {var_value}')

• If your data consists of standard python data and properly formated you can try using json:

import json

x = '12'
y = '[1, 2, 3]'
z = '{"A": 50.0, "B": 60.0}'

attributes = {}
for i, v in enumerate([x, y, z]):
    attributes[f'var{i+1}'] = json.loads(v)

print(attributes)

# Prints
# {'var1': 12, 'var2': [1, 2, 3], 'var3': {'A': 50.0, 'B': 60.0}}

Answered By - Roman Zh.