Can I access memory location and values ( pointers and reference ) for variables in a loop, in Python 3

Question

my_num_1 = 10
my_num_2 = 20

# I want to assign value 5 to above two variables like this:

for num in [my_num_1, my_num_2]:
    num = 5

That won't work. So is there a way to do something like this pseudo code:

for num in [(address_of)my_num_1, (address_of)my_num_2]:
    (value_at)num = 5

The code and application is terrible I know. But is there a way to play around with pointers and (de)referencing in Python like this?

Answer 1

Assuming you're a beginner to Python

What you want is a dictionary or a list. Use a dictionary if you need the variable names, but in this case a list is probably a better idea.

Dictionary sample implementation:

nums={
    "my_1": 10,
    "my_2": 20,
} #Create a dictionary of your nums

print(nums["my_1"]) #10
print(nums["my_2"]) #20

for num in nums: #Iterate through the keys of the dictionary
    nums[num] = 5 #and set the values paired with those keys to 5

print(nums["my_1"]) #5
print(nums["my_2"]) #5

List sample implementation:

nums = [10, 20] #Create a list and populate it with your numbers

print(nums[0]) #10
print(nums[1]) #20

for num in range(len(nums)): #Keys for your list
    nums[num] = 5 #Set the values within the list

print(nums[0]) #5
print(nums[1]) #5

Assuming you're a moderately advanced programmer

You can mutate the globals() dict.

my_num_1 = 10
my_num_2 = 20

print(my_num_1) #10
print(my_num_2) #20

for name in ("my_num_1", "my_num_2"): #Iterate through a tuple of your names
    globals()[name] = 5 #and mutate the globals dict

print(my_num_1) #5
print(my_num_2) #5