Add a variable to a class instance at runtime

This demonstrates how to dynamically add variables to a class instance at runtime. This is useful when the methods/variables are based on a data file that isn't available until runtime. Hal Fulton gives an example of creating an OO CSV parser at An Exercise in Metaprogramming with Ruby. This is referred to as "monkeypatching" by Pythonistas and some others. It's possible in most dynamic OO languages such as Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk.

JavaScript

e = {}       // generic object
e.foo = 1

Python

class empty(object):
  pass
e = empty()

If the variable name is known at "compile" time:

e.foo = 1

If the variable name is only at runtime:

setattr(e, name, value)

Ruby

class Empty
end

e = Empty.new
e.instance_variable_set("@foo", 1)
e.instance_eval("class << self; attr_accessor :foo; end")
puts e.foo