Is it possible to dereference variable id’s?

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Here’s a utility function based on a (now-deleted) comment made by “Tiran” in a weblog discussion @Hophat Abc references in his own answer that will work in both Python 2 and 3.

Disclaimer: If you read the the linked discussion, you’ll find that some folks think this is so unsafe that it should never be used (as likewise mentioned in some of the comments below). I don’t agree with that assessment but feel I should at least mention that there’s some debate about using it.

import _ctypes

def di(obj_id):
    """ Inverse of id() function. """
    return _ctypes.PyObj_FromPtr(obj_id)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    a = 42
    b = 'answer'
    print(di(id(a)))  # -> 42
    print(di(id(b)))  # -> answer

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