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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Is it bad practice to use python's getattr extensively?

Programmer Question

I'm creating a shell-like environment. My original method of handleing user input was to use a dictionary mapping commands (strings) to methods of various classes, making use of the fact that functions are first class objects in python.



For flexibility's sake (mostly for parsing commands), I'm thinking of changing my setup such that I'm using getattr(command), to grab the method I need and then passing arguments to it at the end of my parser. Another advantage of this approach is not having to update my (currently statically implemented) command dictionary every time I add a new method/command.



My question is two fold. First, does getattr have the same problems as eval? Second, will I be taking a hit to the efficiency of my shell? Does it matter how many methods/commands I have? I'm currently looking at 30 some commands, which could eventually double.



Find the answer here

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