Using Variables for Class Names in Python?

Assuming that some_module has a class named "class_name":

import some_module
klass = getattr(some_module, "class_name")
some_object = klass()

I should note that you should be careful here: turning strings into code can be dangerous if the string came from the user, so you should keep security in mind in this situation. :)

One other method (assuming that we still are using "class_name"):

class_lookup = { 'class_name' : class_name }
some_object = class_lookup['class_name']()  #call the object once we've pulled it out of the dict

The latter method is probably the most secure way of doing this, so it's probably what you should use if at all possible.

If you need to create a dynamic class in Python (i.e. one whose name is a variable) you can use type() which takes 3 params: name, bases, attrs

>>> class_name = 'MyClass'
>>> klass = type(class_name, (object,), {'msg': 'foobarbaz'})

<class '__main__.MyClass'>

>>> inst = klass()
>>> inst.msg
foobarbaz

• Note however, that this does not 'instantiate' the object (i.e. does not call constructors etc. It creates a new(!) class with the same name.

In Python,

className = MyClass
newObject = className()

The first line makes the variable className refer to the same thing as MyClass. Then the next line calls the MyClass constructor through the className variable.

As a concrete example:

>>> className = list
>>> newObject = className()
>>> newObject
[]

(In Python, list is the constructor for the list class.)

The difference is that in PHP, you represent the name of the class you want to refer to as a string, while in Python you can reference the same class directly. If you must use a string (for example if the name of the class is created dynamically), then you will need to use other techniques.