TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment when trying to run thru variables to write to them

Question

So I have this code:

answeariteration = 0
while answeariteration < int(numberofanswears):
    thread = reddbot.submission(url = str(submissionurl))
    globals()["answear" + str(answeariteration)] = "test"

    answear = thread.comments[answeariteration]

    "answear" [answeariteration] = str(answear)
    answeariteration += 1

and when I run it i get:

TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

I make some variables with the names like answear0, answear1, etc. Then I need to write to replace the test text in these variables with a string:

"answear" [answeariteration] = str(answear)

It won't let me cycle thru every variable name.

Answer 1

I think you meant the line

"answear" [answeariteration] = str(answear)

to be

globals()["answear"+str(answeariteration)] = str(answear)

But this is not a good way to do it. Instead of manipulation of variable names, you can use a dict. Maybe something like this:

answer = {}

answer_iteration = 0
while answer_iteration < int(numberofanswers):
    thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
    answer[answer_iteration] = str(thread.comments[answer_iteration])
    answer_iteration += 1

And you can use a for loop instead of while.

answer = {}

for answer_iteration in range(numberofanswers):
    thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
    answer[answer_iteration] = str(thread.comments[answer_iteration])

And you probably don't need to do the thread every loop, although I'm guessing about some things at this point.

answer = {}
thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
for answer_iteration, comment in enumerate(thread.comments):
    answer[answer_iteration] = str(comment)

And now this is simple enough to be a comprehension

thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
answer = {i: str(comment) for i, comment in enumerate(thread.comments)}

Which could maybe be simplified to just

thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
answer = dict(enumerate(thread.comments))

if the comments were already strings. Not sure.

And that could maybe be simplified to

thread = reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl))
answer = list(thread.comments)

or even

answer = list(reddbot.submission(url=str(submissionurl)).comments)

Since we were using numerical keys, starting from 0.

In these cases, instead of using answer0, answer1, answer2, etc, you can use answer[0], answer[1], answer[2], etc.