Pointers in python?

[Mattyp77]

Is there any way to get a variable to act like a pointer in python? Heres a little code to describe the gist of what Im trying to do.

name = 'Matt'
score = 0
player = {'name': name, 'score': score}  # This is what I want to act as a pointer
# ******** FAKE GAME **********
score += 10  # 10 points added to score
print(player)  # This will not print out the updated score

I know the correct way to go about this is to make it an object of a class but this is just a random example. Its not really exactly what Im doing. In what I am writing it doesnt make sense to make a class for just the one or two variables that Im trying to reference. This is something I've wished I had the ability to do quite a few times. It would be really nice. Any modules or anything that can help with this or tricks or anything?

 

[VBService]

AFAIK in python, variables are references to objects, and when you assign a variable to another, it essentially points to the same object. However, in your example, you are creating a dictionary, and modifying the score variable won't automatically update the dictionary since dictionaries are immutable. If you want to achieve something similar to a pointer in python, you might want to use a mutable object for example like a list.

[ working code on-line ]

name = 'Matt'
score = [0]  # Using a list to hold a mutable object
player = { 'name': name, 'score': score }

# ******** FAKE GAME **********
score[0] += 10  # 10 points added to score
print(player)  # This will print out the updated score

or

it is not simpler to change the field in the dictionary directly ...
[ working code on-line ]

player = { 'name': '', 'score': 0 }

# ******** FAKE GAME **********
player['name'] = 'Matt'
player['score'] += 10  # 10 points added to score
print(player)  # This will print out the updated player data