creating a list of functions using globals()

August 10, 2022

I am trying to define 3 functions.

one = 'one'
two = 'two'
three = 'three'
l = [one, two, three]

for item in l:
    def _f(): return '::'+item
    globals()[item] = _f
    del _f
print(one(), two(), three())

However, the three functions are the same, they are equal to the last one. Am I using globals() in the wrong way?

>Solution :

Since item is just a name in the body of _f, you should define _f in a scope where item will have the value you want when you call the function.

You should also not try to inject values into the global namespace like this; just use an ordinary dict.

def make_function(x):
    def _():
        return '::' + x
    return _

d = {item: make_function(item) for item in ['one', 'two', 'three']}

for f in d.values():
    print(f())