title: Python dynamically created custom named functions
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13184281/python-dynamic-function-creation-with-custom-names">Python dynamic function creation with custom names</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>I have written a little script to determine whether what I wanted to do is possible. It is. </p>
  
  <p>My goal is to dynamically (at runtime) create functions (or methods) which have names based on a list of arbitrary size (size of the list = number of functions dynamically created). 
  All the functions do the same (for now), they just print their arguments.</p>
  
  <p>The following code does exactly what I want, BUT, it is not clean and very brute-force. I'm trying to figure out if there is a better way to do this.</p>
  
  <pre><code>class Binder:
      def __init__(self, test_cases):
          """"
          test_cases: a list of function/method names.
          length of test_case = number of methods created.
          """
  
          for test_case in test_cases:
              #construct a code string for creating a new method using "exec" 
              func_str = "def "
              func_str += test_case
              func_str += "(*args):"
              func_str += "\n\t"
              func_str += "for arg in args:"
              func_str += "\n\t\t"
              func_str += "print arg"
              func_str += "\n"
  
              """
              For example, func_str for test_cases[0]= "func1" is simply:
              def func1(*args):
                  for arg in args:
                      print arg
              """
              #use exec to define the function
              exec(func_str)
  
              #add the function as a method to this class
              # for test_cases[0] = "func1", this is: self.func1 = func1
              set_self = "self." + test_case + " = " + test_case
              exec(set_self)
  
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      #this list holds the names of the new functions to be created
      test_cases = ["func1", "func2", "func3", "func4"]
      b = Binder(test_cases)
  
      #simply call each function as the instant's attributes
      b.func1(1)
      b.func2(1, 3, 5)
      b.func4(10)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Output is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>1
  1
  3
  5
  10
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As expected.</p>
  
  <p><strong>update</strong> the content of the function would not simply be a for loop printing the args, it would do something more meaningful. I get the exact result I want from the piece of code above, just wondering if there is a better way of doing it.</p>
  
  <p><strong>update</strong> I'm tying two ends of a much bigger module. One end determines what the test cases are and among other things, populates a list of the test cases' names. The other end is the functions themselves, which must have 1:1 mapping with the name of the test case. So I have the name of the test cases, I know what I want to do with each test case, I just need to create the functions that have the name of the test cases. Since the name of the test cases are determined at runtime, the function creation based on those test cases must be at runtime as well. The number of test cases is also determined at runtime.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a better way to do this??
  Any and all suggestions welcome.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>
  
  <p>Mahdi   </p>