Develop Reference

Python mixins how to differentiate same method?

From here, if you define some objects like that:
class Mixin1(object):
def test(self):
print "Mixin1"
class Mixin2(object):
def test(self):
print "Mixin2"
class BaseClass(object):
pass
class MyClass(Mixin2, Mixin1, BaseClass):
pass
You'll get:
>>> obj = MyClass()
>>> obj.test()
Mixin2
Is there a way to call Mixin1 test() method?

Call it explicitly:
Mixin1.test(obj)
The attribute process in Python is relatively complex. For your given example, this is the process for finding the value of obj.test:
First, look at the instance itself. In this case, the instance does not have a test attribute.
Look at the class which obj is an instance of: MyClass. MyClass does not have a test attribute.
Start looking at the classes in the method resolution order of MyClass. In this case, MyClass.__mro__ tells you to look first at Mixin2, then Mixin1, then object.
Mixin2 has a test attribute, so we finally have a match.
Mixin2.test is a function with a __get__ method, so that is called and the return value is used.
You can safely ignore step 5 here, and just assume that Mixin2.test is a method. One that is returned, you can see that obj.test() calls Mixin2.test.
This might help explain why I asked the question I did in a comment. There is a wide variety of ways you can fiddle with the program to get obj.test() to produce a call to Mixin1.test() instead. You can patch the object, you can fiddle with MyClass.__mro__, you can tweak what Mixin2.test actually does, etc.

Override the test method and call Mixin1.test explicitly:
class MyClass(Mixin2, Mixin1, BaseClass):
def test(self):
Mixin1.test(self)

Python factory method with external function

I've read this SO discussion about factory methods, and have an alternate constructor use case.
My class looks like this:
class Foo(object):
def __init__(self, bar):
self.bar = bar
#classmethod
def from_data(cls, datafile):
bar = datafile.read_bar()
# Now I want to process bar in some way
bar = _process_bar(bar)
return cls(bar)
def _process_bar(self, bar)
return bar + 1
My question is, if a #classmethod factory method wants to use a function in its code, should that function (_proces_bar) be:
A #classmethod, which seems a bit weird because you won't ever call it like Foo._process_bar()
A method outside of the class Foo but in the same .py file. I'd go with this, but it seems kind of weird. Will those methods always be available to an instance of Foo, regardless of how it was instantiated? (e.g. what if it's saved to a Pickle then reloaded? Presumably methods outside the class will then not be available!)
A #staticmethod? (see 1. This seems weird)
Something else? (but not this!)

The "right solution" depends on your needs...
If the function (_process_bar) needs an access to class Foo (or the current subclass of...) then you want a classmethod - which should be then called as cls._process_bar(), not Foo._process_bar().
If the function doesn't need an access to the class itself but you still want to be able to override it in subclasses (IOW : you want class-based polymorphism), you want a staticmethod
Else you just want a plain function. Where this function's code lives is irrelevant, and your import problems are othogonal.
Also, you may (or not, depending on your concrete use case) want to allow for more flexiblity using a callback function (possibly with a default), ie:
def process_bar(bar):
return bar + 1
class Foo(object):
#classmethod
def from_data(self, datafile, processor=process_bar):
bar = datafile.read_bar()
bar = processor(bar)
return cls(bar)

How does one write a method to call after a variable or object, such as "string {0}".format(stringy)?

For different data types, like string, there are methods that you call by adding a dot after, such as:
"string {0}".format(stringy)
or
listx.remove(x)
How is the information being passed to the method? How can I write a function like that?

class YourObject(object):
def do_something(self):
print('doing something')
Then you can use your object:
your_object = YourObject()
your_object.do_something()
This shows how to create an object, and call a method on it (like theexamples you provided in your post).
There are way more in-depth tutorials/blogs about object creation and custom classes. A good place to start is always the standard documentation.

You can create a custom class and then include whatever methods you want. Below is an example:
>>> class MyClass(object): # Define class MyClass
... def __init__(self): # Define MyClass' constructor method
... self.name = "Me" # Make an attribute
... def getName(self): # Define method getName
... return self.name # Return MyClass' attribute name (self.name)
...
>>> test = MyClass() # Initialize (create an instance of) MyClass
>>> print test.getName() # Print the name attribute by calling the getName method
Me
>>>
Basically, you are working with OOP (Object-Oriented Programming). However, since this concept is so large, I can't demonstrate/explain everything you can do with it here (otherwise my post would be enormous). My advice is to research OOP and Python classes. There are many good tutorials you can find. I gave one above; here is another:

Is there a way apply a decorator to a Python method that needs informations about the class?

When you decorate a method, it is not bound yet to the class, and therefor doesn't have the im_class attribute yet. I looking for a way to get the information about the class inside the decorator. I tried this:
import types
def decorator(method):
def set_signal(self, name, value):
print name
if name == 'im_class':
print "I got the class"
method.__setattr__ = types.MethodType(set_signal, method)
return method
class Test(object):
#decorator
def bar(self, foo):
print foo
But it doesn't print anything.
I can imagine doing this:
class Test(object):
#decorator(klass=Test)
def bar(self, foo):
print foo
But if I can avoid it, it would make my day.

__setattr__ is only called on explicit object.attribute = assignments; building a class does not use attribute assignment but builds a dictionary (Test.__dict__) instead.
To access the class you have a few different options though:
Use a class decorator instead; it'll be passed the completed class after building it, you could decorate individual methods on that class by replacing them (decorated) in the class. You could use a combination of a function decorator and a class decorator to mark which methods are to be decorated:
def methoddecoratormarker(func):
func._decorate_me = True
return func
def realmethoddecorator(func):
# do something with func.
# Note: it is still an unbound function here, not a method!
return func
def classdecorator(klass):
for name, item in klass.__dict__.iteritems():
if getattr(item, '_decorate_me', False):
klass.__dict__[name] = realmethoddecorator(item)
You could use a metaclass instead of a class decorator to achieve the same, of course.
Cheat, and use sys._getframe() to retrieve the class from the calling frame:
import sys
def methoddecorator(func):
callingframe = sys._getframe(1)
classname = callingframe.f_code.co_name
Note that all you can retrieve is the name of the class; the class itself is still being built at this time. You can add items to callingframe.f_locals (a mapping) and they'll be made part of the new class object.
Access self whenever the method is called. self is a reference to the instance after all, and self.__class__ is going to be, at the very least, a sub-class of the original class the function was defined in.

My strict answer would be: It's not possible, because the class does not yet exist when the decorator is executed.
The longer answer would depend on your very exact requirements. As I wrote, you cannot access the class if it does not yet exists. One solution would be, to mark the decorated method to be "transformed" later. Then use a metaclass or class decorator to apply your modifications after the class has been created.
Another option involves some magic. Look for the implementation of the implements method in zope.interfaces. It has some access to the information about the class which is just been parsed. Don't know if it will be enough for your use case.

You might want to take a look at descriptors. They let you implement a __get__ that is used when an attribute is accessed, and can return different things depending on the object and its type.

Use method decorators to add some marker attributes to the interesting methods, and use a metaclass which iterates over the methods, finds the marker attributes, and does the logic. The metaclass code is run when the class is created, so it has a reference to the newly created class.
class MyMeta(object):
def __new__(...):
...
cls = ...
... iterate over dir(cls), find methods having .is_decorated, act on them
return cls
def decorator(f):
f.is_decorated = True
return f
class MyBase(object):
__metaclass__ = MyMeta
class MyClass(MyBase):
#decorator
def bar(self, foo):
print foo
If you worry about that the programmer of MyClass forgets to use MyBase, you can forcibly set the metaclass in decorator, by exampining the globals dicitionary of the caller stack frame (sys._getframe()).

Python - how can I override the functionality of a class before it's imported by a different module?

I have a class that's being imported in module_x for instantiation, but first I want to override one of the class's methods to include a specific feature dynamically (inside some middleware that runs before module_x is loaded.

Neither AndiDog's nor Andrew's answer answer your question completely. But they have given the most important tools to be able to solve your problem (+1 to both). I will be using one of their suggestions in my answer:
You will need 3 files:
File 1: myClass.py
class C:
def func(self):
#do something
File 2: importer.py
from myClass import *
def changeFunc():
A = C()
A.func = lambda : "I like pi"
return A
if __name__ == "importer":
A = changeFunc()
File 3: module_x.py
from importer import *
print A.func()
The output of module_x would print "I like pi"
Hope this helps

You should know that each class type (like C in class C: ...) is an object, so you can simply overwrite the class methods. As long as instances don't overwrite their own methods (won't happen too often because that's not really useful for single inntances), each instance uses the methods as inherited from its class type. This way, you can even replace a method after an instance has been created.
For example:
class C:
def m(self):
print "original"
c1 = C()
c1.m() # prints "original"
def replacement(self):
print "replaced!"
C.m = replacement
c1.m() # prints "replaced!"
C().m() # prints "replaced!"

Since every python class is actually a dictionary (not only objects!)
You can easily override class methods by associate them with new function.
class A:
def f(self):
return 5
a = A()
a.f() #5
A.f = lambda self: 10
a.f() #10
You should use it with care. In most cases decorators & proper OO-design will work for you and if you forced to override class method, maybe, you make something wrong.