For example, if I have a function called add
like
def add(x,y):
return x+y
and I want the ability to convert a string or an input to direct to that function like
w=raw_input('Please input the function you want to use')
or
w='add'
Is there any way to use w to refer to the function add
?
Since you are taking user input, the safest way is to define exactly what is valid input:
dispatcher={'add':add}
w='add'
try:
function=dispatcher[w]
except KeyError:
raise ValueError('invalid input')
If you want to evaluate strings like 'add(3,4)'
, you could use safe eval:
eval('add(3,4)',{'__builtins__':None},dispatcher)
eval
in general could be dangerous when applied to user input. The above is safer since __builtins__
is disabled and locals
is restricted to dispatcher
. Someone cleverer than I might be able to still cause trouble, but I couldn't tell you how to do it.
WARNING: Even eval(..., {'__builtins__':None}, dispatcher)
is unsafe to be applied to user input. A malicious user could run arbitrary functions on your machine if given the opportunity to have his string evaluated by eval
.