[Biopython-dev] Basic python question with regard to Unigene parser

[Sean Davis]

On Thursday 26 October 2006 08:09, Sean Davis wrote:
> Let me start off by saying that I am a python newbie after working in perl
> for the last few years.  I am working on a Unigene flat file parser.  In my
> scanner, I have a construct that looks like:
>
>         for line in handle:
>             tag = line.split(' ')[0]
>             line = line.rstrip()
>             if tag=='ID':
>                 consumer.ID(line)
>             if tag=='GENE':
>                 consumer.GENE(line)
>             if tag=='TITLE':
>                 consumer.TITLE(line)
>             if tag=='EXPRESS':
>                 consumer.EXPRESS(line)
>             ....
>
> Since I am setting things up so that there is a 1:1 correspondence between
> the "tag" and the consumer method, is there an easy way to reduce this long
> set of IF statements to a simple mapping procedure that maps a tag to the
> correct method?
>
> Sorry for the naive question....

Even more apologies.  I answered my own question.  Something like this seems 
to work:

	exec('consumer.'+tag+'(line)')

which replaces all the IF statements quite nicely.

Sean