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Python unit testing on class methods with no input arguments

Given a class with class methods that contain only self input:
class ABC():
def __init__(self, input_dict)
self.variable_0 = input_dict['variable_0']
self.variable_1 = input_dict['variable_1']
self.variable_2 = input_dict['variable_2']
self.variable_3 = input_dict['variable_3']
def some_operation_0(self):
return self.variable_0 + self.variable_1
def some_operation_1(self):
return self.variable_2 + self.variable_3
First question: Is this very bad practice? Should I just refactor some_operation_0(self) to explicitly take the necessary inputs, some_operation_0(self, variable_0, variable_1)? If so, the testing is very straightforward.
Second question: What is the correct way to setup my unit test on the method some_operation_0(self)?
Should I setup a fixture in which I initialize input_dict, and then instantiate the class with a mock object?
#pytest.fixture
def generator_inputs():
f = open('inputs.txt', 'r')
input_dict = eval(f.read())
f.close()
mock_obj = ABC(input_dict)
def test_some_operation_0():
assert mock_obj.some_operation_0() == some_value
(I am new to both python and general unit testing...)

Those methods do take an argument: self. There is no need to mock anything. Instead, you can simply create an instance, and verify that the methods return the expected value when invoked.
For your example:
def test_abc():
a = ABC({'variable_0':0, 'variable_1':1, 'variable_2':2, 'variable_3':3))
assert a.some_operation_0() == 1
assert a.some_operation_1() == 5
If constructing an instance is very difficult, you might want to change your code so that the class can be instantiated from standard in-memory data structures (e.g. a dictionary). In that case, you could create a separate function that reads/parses data from a file and uses the "data-structure-based" __init__ method, e.g. make_abc() or a class method.
If this approach does not generalize to your real problem, you could imagine providing programmatic access to the key names or other metadata that ABC recognizes or cares about. Then, you could programmatically construct a "defaulted" instance, e.g. an instance where every value in the input dict is a default-constructed value (such as 0 for int):
class ABC():
PROPERTY_NAMES = ['variable_0', 'variable_1', 'variable_2', 'variable_3']
def __init__(self, input_dict):
# implementation omitted for brevity
pass
def some_operation_0(self):
return self.variable_0 + self.variable_1
def some_operation_1(self):
return self.variable_2 + self.variable_3
def test_abc():
a = ABC({name: 0 for name in ABC.PROPERTY_NAMES})
assert a.some_operation_0() == 0
assert a.some_operation_1() == 0

Python object as property type

I'm searching for an elegant way to replace setter/getter methodes handling complex data types by properties using the #property decorator.
The class I'm working on should represent some kind of (network) dimmer. It is possible to request/send "resources" addressed by a specific ID to control the device. I'd like to represent those "resources" as properties of my class hiding the request/send mechanism and the cryptical ID numbers.
Some of those "resources" are just primitive types (int, float, ...) but some are more complex, so I've just created simple classes for them.
This works fine, but there is an ugly source of error: It is not possible to change an attribute of that property directly, I have to set the property completely everytime.
DUMMY_DB = {0x0001: bytearray([0x00])}
class State:
def __init__(self, on, value):
self.on = on
self.value = value
#staticmethod
def from_int(val):
return State(bool(val & 0x80), val & 0x7f)
def __int__(self):
return self.on << 7 | self.value
class Dimmer:
#property
def state(self) -> State:
return State.from_int(self._request(0x0001)[0]) # ID 0x0001 => State
#state.setter
def state(self, val: State):
self._send(0x0001, [int(val)]) # ID 0x0001 => State
# several more properties...
def _request(self, ident) -> bytearray:
# usually get resource 'ident' from network/file/...
return DUMMY_DB[ident]
def _send(self, ident, value):
# usually set resource 'ident' on network/file/... using value
DUMMY_DB[ident] = value
if __name__ == '__main__':
dimmer = Dimmer()
print(dimmer.state.on, dimmer.state.value) # start state
dimmer.state.on = True
dimmer.state.value = 15
print(dimmer.state.on, dimmer.state.value) # state did not change
dimmer.state = State(True, 15)
print(dimmer.state.on, dimmer.state.value) # state changed
The first print is just to show the start state ("False 0"). But the second print shows that
dimmer.state.on = True
dimmer.state.value = 15
are useless. This is because dimmer.state returns a new mutable object which is modified and destroyed without further usage. Only through the complete property assignment the setter methode is called and Dimmer._send invoked.
I think this might be extremely unintuitive and error-prone. Do you have any suggestions for a better design?

Accessing member variable in Python?

I have recently started learning python (coming from C++ background), but I could not understand how should I access the member variable (nonce) and use it in the second function called def mine_block().Aren't all members of the class Block publicly available from everywhere?
class Block:
'''
Дефинираме ф-я , която създава
променливите като членове на класа Block
'''
def _init_(self,prevHash,index,nonce,data,hash,time):
self.prevHash = prevHash
self.index = index
self.nonce = nonce
self.data = data
self.hash = hash
self.time = time
def get_hash(self):
print(self.hash)
def mine_block(self,difficulty):
arr = []
for i in range(difficulty):
arr[i] = '0'
arr[difficulty] = '\0'
str = arr
while True:
'''
here I receive an error
unresolved referene nonce
'''
nonce++

To refer to class attributes within the class methods you need pass the object itself into the methods with the keyword self. Then you can access other class methods and the class attributes with self.foo.
Also, the while True loop should not be indented at root level within the class. Last, the foo++ C-style is not correct in Pyhton, it should be foo += 1

In Python all instance members are publicly available through the class instance which is passed to class methods as self. Hence you should use self.nonce.
Besides, in Python be careful with indentation. Your mine_block method should look like:
def mine_block(self,difficulty):
...
str = arr
while True:
self.nonce += 1

Python observer/observable library [duplicate]

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Are there any exemplary examples of the GoF Observer implemented in Python? I have a bit code which currently has bits of debugging code laced through the key class (currently generating messages to stderr if a magic env is set). Additionally, the class has an interface for incrementally return results as well as storing them (in memory) for post processing. (The class itself is a job manager for concurrently executing commands on remote machines over ssh).
Currently the usage of the class looks something like:
job = SSHJobMan(hostlist, cmd)
job.start()
while not job.done():
for each in job.poll():
incrementally_process(job.results[each])
time.sleep(0.2) # or other more useful work
post_process(job.results)
An alernative usage model is:
job = SSHJobMan(hostlist, cmd)
job.wait() # implicitly performs a start()
process(job.results)
This all works fine for the current utility. However it does lack flexibility. For example I currently support a brief output format or a progress bar as incremental results, I also support
brief, complete and "merged message" outputs for the post_process() function.
However, I'd like to support multiple results/output streams (progress bar to the terminal, debugging and warnings to a log file, outputs from successful jobs to one file/directory, error messages and other results from non-successful jobs to another, etc).
This sounds like a situation that calls for Observer ... have instances of my class accept registration from other objects and call them back with specific types of events as they occur.
I'm looking at PyPubSub since I saw several references to that in SO related questions. I'm not sure I'm ready to add the external dependency to my utility but I could see value in using their interface as a model for mine if that's going to make it easier for others to use. (The project is intended as both a standalone command line utility and a class for writing other scripts/utilities).
In short I know how to do what I want ... but there are numerous ways to accomplish it. I want suggestions on what's most likely to work for other users of the code in the long run.
The code itself is at: classh.

However it does lack flexibility.
Well... actually, this looks like a good design to me if an asynchronous API is what you want. It usually is. Maybe all you need is to switch from stderr to Python's logging module, which has a sort of publish/subscribe model of its own, what with Logger.addHandler() and so on.
If you do want to support observers, my advice is to keep it simple. You really only need a few lines of code.
class Event(object):
pass
class Observable(object):
def __init__(self):
self.callbacks = []
def subscribe(self, callback):
self.callbacks.append(callback)
def fire(self, **attrs):
e = Event()
e.source = self
for k, v in attrs.items():
setattr(e, k, v)
for fn in self.callbacks:
fn(e)
Your Job class can subclass Observable. When something of interest happens, call self.fire(type="progress", percent=50) or the like.

I think people in the other answers overdo it. You can easily achieve events in Python with less than 15 lines of code.
You simple have two classes: Event and Observer. Any class that wants to listen for an event, needs to inherit Observer and set to listen (observe) for a specific event. When an Event is instantiated and fired, all observers listening to that event will run the specified callback functions.
class Observer():
_observers = []
def __init__(self):
self._observers.append(self)
self._observables = {}
def observe(self, event_name, callback):
self._observables[event_name] = callback
class Event():
def __init__(self, name, data, autofire = True):
self.name = name
self.data = data
if autofire:
self.fire()
def fire(self):
for observer in Observer._observers:
if self.name in observer._observables:
observer._observables[self.name](self.data)
Example:
class Room(Observer):
def __init__(self):
print("Room is ready.")
Observer.__init__(self) # Observer's init needs to be called
def someone_arrived(self, who):
print(who + " has arrived!")
room = Room()
room.observe('someone arrived', room.someone_arrived)
Event('someone arrived', 'Lenard')
Output:
Room is ready.
Lenard has arrived!

A few more approaches...
Example: the logging module
Maybe all you need is to switch from stderr to Python's logging module, which has a powerful publish/subscribe model.
It's easy to get started producing log records.
# producer
import logging
log = logging.getLogger("myjobs") # that's all the setup you need
class MyJob(object):
def run(self):
log.info("starting job")
n = 10
for i in range(n):
log.info("%.1f%% done" % (100.0 * i / n))
log.info("work complete")
On the consumer side there's a bit more work. Unfortunately configuring logger output takes, like, 7 whole lines of code to do. ;)
# consumer
import myjobs, sys, logging
if user_wants_log_output:
ch = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr)
ch.setLevel(logging.INFO)
formatter = logging.Formatter(
"%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s")
ch.setFormatter(formatter)
myjobs.log.addHandler(ch)
myjobs.log.setLevel(logging.INFO)
myjobs.MyJob().run()
On the other hand there's an amazing amount of stuff in the logging package. If you ever need to send log data to a rotating set of files, an email address, and the Windows Event Log, you're covered.
Example: simplest possible observer
But you don't need to use any library at all. An extremely simple way to support observers is to call a method that does nothing.
# producer
class MyJob(object):
def on_progress(self, pct):
"""Called when progress is made. pct is the percent complete.
By default this does nothing. The user may override this method
or even just assign to it."""
pass
def run(self):
n = 10
for i in range(n):
self.on_progress(100.0 * i / n)
self.on_progress(100.0)
# consumer
import sys, myjobs
job = myjobs.MyJob()
job.on_progress = lambda pct: sys.stdout.write("%.1f%% done\n" % pct)
job.run()
Sometimes instead of writing a lambda, you can just say job.on_progress = progressBar.update, which is nice.
This is about as simple as it gets. One drawback is that it doesn't naturally support multiple listeners subscribing to the same events.
Example: C#-like events
With a bit of support code, you can get C#-like events in Python. Here's the code:
# glue code
class event(object):
def __init__(self, func):
self.__doc__ = func.__doc__
self._key = ' ' + func.__name__
def __get__(self, obj, cls):
try:
return obj.__dict__[self._key]
except KeyError, exc:
be = obj.__dict__[self._key] = boundevent()
return be
class boundevent(object):
def __init__(self):
self._fns = []
def __iadd__(self, fn):
self._fns.append(fn)
return self
def __isub__(self, fn):
self._fns.remove(fn)
return self
def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
for f in self._fns[:]:
f(*args, **kwargs)
The producer declares the event using a decorator:
# producer
class MyJob(object):
#event
def progress(pct):
"""Called when progress is made. pct is the percent complete."""
def run(self):
n = 10
for i in range(n+1):
self.progress(100.0 * i / n)
#consumer
import sys, myjobs
job = myjobs.MyJob()
job.progress += lambda pct: sys.stdout.write("%.1f%% done\n" % pct)
job.run()
This works exactly like the "simple observer" code above, but you can add as many listeners as you like using +=. (Unlike C#, there are no event handler types, you don't have to new EventHandler(foo.bar) when subscribing to an event, and you don't have to check for null before firing the event. Like C#, events do not squelch exceptions.)
How to choose
If logging does everything you need, use that. Otherwise do the simplest thing that works for you. The key thing to note is that you don't need to take on a big external dependency.

How about an implementation where objects aren't kept alive just because they're observing something? Below please find an implementation of the observer pattern with the following features:
Usage is pythonic. To add an observer to a bound method .bar of instance foo, just do foo.bar.addObserver(observer).
Observers are not kept alive by virtue of being observers. In other words, the observer code uses no strong references.
No sub-classing necessary (descriptors ftw).
Can be used with unhashable types.
Can be used as many times you want in a single class.
(bonus) As of today the code exists in a proper downloadable, installable package on github.
Here's the code (the github package or PyPI package have the most up to date implementation):
import weakref
import functools
class ObservableMethod(object):
"""
A proxy for a bound method which can be observed.
I behave like a bound method, but other bound methods can subscribe to be
called whenever I am called.
"""
def __init__(self, obj, func):
self.func = func
functools.update_wrapper(self, func)
self.objectWeakRef = weakref.ref(obj)
self.callbacks = {} #observing object ID -> weak ref, methodNames
def addObserver(self, boundMethod):
"""
Register a bound method to observe this ObservableMethod.
The observing method will be called whenever this ObservableMethod is
called, and with the same arguments and keyword arguments. If a
boundMethod has already been registered to as a callback, trying to add
it again does nothing. In other words, there is no way to sign up an
observer to be called back multiple times.
"""
obj = boundMethod.__self__
ID = id(obj)
if ID in self.callbacks:
s = self.callbacks[ID][1]
else:
wr = weakref.ref(obj, Cleanup(ID, self.callbacks))
s = set()
self.callbacks[ID] = (wr, s)
s.add(boundMethod.__name__)
def discardObserver(self, boundMethod):
"""
Un-register a bound method.
"""
obj = boundMethod.__self__
if id(obj) in self.callbacks:
self.callbacks[id(obj)][1].discard(boundMethod.__name__)
def __call__(self, *arg, **kw):
"""
Invoke the method which I proxy, and all of it's callbacks.
The callbacks are called with the same *args and **kw as the main
method.
"""
result = self.func(self.objectWeakRef(), *arg, **kw)
for ID in self.callbacks:
wr, methodNames = self.callbacks[ID]
obj = wr()
for methodName in methodNames:
getattr(obj, methodName)(*arg, **kw)
return result
#property
def __self__(self):
"""
Get a strong reference to the object owning this ObservableMethod
This is needed so that ObservableMethod instances can observe other
ObservableMethod instances.
"""
return self.objectWeakRef()
class ObservableMethodDescriptor(object):
def __init__(self, func):
"""
To each instance of the class using this descriptor, I associate an
ObservableMethod.
"""
self.instances = {} # Instance id -> (weak ref, Observablemethod)
self._func = func
def __get__(self, inst, cls):
if inst is None:
return self
ID = id(inst)
if ID in self.instances:
wr, om = self.instances[ID]
if not wr():
msg = "Object id %d should have been cleaned up"%(ID,)
raise RuntimeError(msg)
else:
wr = weakref.ref(inst, Cleanup(ID, self.instances))
om = ObservableMethod(inst, self._func)
self.instances[ID] = (wr, om)
return om
def __set__(self, inst, val):
raise RuntimeError("Assigning to ObservableMethod not supported")
def event(func):
return ObservableMethodDescriptor(func)
class Cleanup(object):
"""
I manage remove elements from a dict whenever I'm called.
Use me as a weakref.ref callback to remove an object's id from a dict
when that object is garbage collected.
"""
def __init__(self, key, d):
self.key = key
self.d = d
def __call__(self, wr):
del self.d[self.key]
To use this we just decorate methods we want to make observable with #event. Here's an example
class Foo(object):
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
#event
def bar(self):
print("%s called bar"%(self.name,))
def baz(self):
print("%s called baz"%(self.name,))
a = Foo('a')
b = Foo('b')
a.bar.addObserver(b.bar)
a.bar()

From wikipedia:
from collections import defaultdict
class Observable (defaultdict):
def __init__ (self):
defaultdict.__init__(self, object)
def emit (self, *args):
'''Pass parameters to all observers and update states.'''
for subscriber in self:
response = subscriber(*args)
self[subscriber] = response
def subscribe (self, subscriber):
'''Add a new subscriber to self.'''
self[subscriber]
def stat (self):
'''Return a tuple containing the state of each observer.'''
return tuple(self.values())
The Observable is used like this.
myObservable = Observable ()
# subscribe some inlined functions.
# myObservable[lambda x, y: x * y] would also work here.
myObservable.subscribe(lambda x, y: x * y)
myObservable.subscribe(lambda x, y: float(x) / y)
myObservable.subscribe(lambda x, y: x + y)
myObservable.subscribe(lambda x, y: x - y)
# emit parameters to each observer
myObservable.emit(6, 2)
# get updated values
myObservable.stat() # returns: (8, 3.0, 4, 12)

Based on Jason's answer, I implemented the C#-like events example as a fully-fledged python module including documentation and tests. I love fancy pythonic stuff :)
So, if you want some ready-to-use solution, you can just use the code on github.

Example: twisted log observers
To register an observer yourCallable() (a callable that accepts a dictionary) to receive all log events (in addition to any other observers):
twisted.python.log.addObserver(yourCallable)
Example: complete producer/consumer example
From Twisted-Python mailing list:
#!/usr/bin/env python
"""Serve as a sample implementation of a twisted producer/consumer
system, with a simple TCP server which asks the user how many random
integers they want, and it sends the result set back to the user, one
result per line."""
import random
from zope.interface import implements
from twisted.internet import interfaces, reactor
from twisted.internet.protocol import Factory
from twisted.protocols.basic import LineReceiver
class Producer:
"""Send back the requested number of random integers to the client."""
implements(interfaces.IPushProducer)
def __init__(self, proto, cnt):
self._proto = proto
self._goal = cnt
self._produced = 0
self._paused = False
def pauseProducing(self):
"""When we've produced data too fast, pauseProducing() will be
called (reentrantly from within resumeProducing's transport.write
method, most likely), so set a flag that causes production to pause
temporarily."""
self._paused = True
print('pausing connection from %s' % (self._proto.transport.getPeer()))
def resumeProducing(self):
self._paused = False
while not self._paused and self._produced < self._goal:
next_int = random.randint(0, 10000)
self._proto.transport.write('%d\r\n' % (next_int))
self._produced += 1
if self._produced == self._goal:
self._proto.transport.unregisterProducer()
self._proto.transport.loseConnection()
def stopProducing(self):
pass
class ServeRandom(LineReceiver):
"""Serve up random data."""
def connectionMade(self):
print('connection made from %s' % (self.transport.getPeer()))
self.transport.write('how many random integers do you want?\r\n')
def lineReceived(self, line):
cnt = int(line.strip())
producer = Producer(self, cnt)
self.transport.registerProducer(producer, True)
producer.resumeProducing()
def connectionLost(self, reason):
print('connection lost from %s' % (self.transport.getPeer()))
factory = Factory()
factory.protocol = ServeRandom
reactor.listenTCP(1234, factory)
print('listening on 1234...')
reactor.run()

OP asks "Are there any exemplary examples of the GoF Observer implemented in Python?"
This is an example in Python 3.7. This Observable class meets the requirement of creating a relationship between one observable and many observers while remaining independent of their structure.
from functools import partial
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
import sys
from typing import List, Callable
#dataclass
class Observable:
observers: List[Callable] = field(default_factory=list)
def register(self, observer: Callable):
self.observers.append(observer)
def deregister(self, observer: Callable):
self.observers.remove(observer)
def notify(self, *args, **kwargs):
for observer in self.observers:
observer(*args, **kwargs)
def usage_demo():
observable = Observable()
# Register two anonymous observers using lambda.
observable.register(
lambda *args, **kwargs: print(f'Observer 1 called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}'))
observable.register(
lambda *args, **kwargs: print(f'Observer 2 called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}'))
# Create an observer function, register it, then deregister it.
def callable_3():
print('Observer 3 NOT called.')
observable.register(callable_3)
observable.deregister(callable_3)
# Create a general purpose observer function and register four observers.
def callable_x(*args, **kwargs):
print(f'{args[0]} observer called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}')
for gui_field in ['Form field 4', 'Form field 5', 'Form field 6', 'Form field 7']:
observable.register(partial(callable_x, gui_field))
observable.notify('test')
if __name__ == '__main__':
sys.exit(usage_demo())

A functional approach to observer design:
def add_listener(obj, method_name, listener):
# Get any existing listeners
listener_attr = method_name + '_listeners'
listeners = getattr(obj, listener_attr, None)
# If this is the first listener, then set up the method wrapper
if not listeners:
listeners = [listener]
setattr(obj, listener_attr, listeners)
# Get the object's method
method = getattr(obj, method_name)
#wraps(method)
def method_wrapper(*args, **kwags):
method(*args, **kwags)
for l in listeners:
l(obj, *args, **kwags) # Listener also has object argument
# Replace the original method with the wrapper
setattr(obj, method_name, method_wrapper)
else:
# Event is already set up, so just add another listener
listeners.append(listener)
def remove_listener(obj, method_name, listener):
# Get any existing listeners
listener_attr = method_name + '_listeners'
listeners = getattr(obj, listener_attr, None)
if listeners:
# Remove the listener
next((listeners.pop(i)
for i, l in enumerate(listeners)
if l == listener),
None)
# If this was the last listener, then remove the method wrapper
if not listeners:
method = getattr(obj, method_name)
delattr(obj, listener_attr)
setattr(obj, method_name, method.__wrapped__)
These methods can then be used to add a listener to any class method. For example:
class MyClass(object):
def __init__(self, prop):
self.prop = prop
def some_method(self, num, string):
print('method:', num, string)
def listener_method(obj, num, string):
print('listener:', num, string, obj.prop)
my = MyClass('my_prop')
add_listener(my, 'some_method', listener_method)
my.some_method(42, 'with listener')
remove_listener(my, 'some_method', listener_method)
my.some_method(42, 'without listener')
And the output is:
method: 42 with listener
listener: 42 with listener my_prop
method: 42 without listener

Python Class inheritance Constructor fail: What am I doing wrong?

I have a small Python OOP program in which 2 class, Flan and Outil inherit from a superclass Part.
My problem is when I call Flan everything works perfectly, however when I call Outil the program fails silently.
The Outil instance is created, but it lacks all the attributes it doesn't share with Part.
The Outil instance isn't added to Outil.list_instance_outils, nor to Part.list_instances.
class Outil(Part):
list_instance_outils = []
def __init___(self, name, part_type, nodes, elems):
Part.__init__(self, name, part_type, nodes, elems)
self.vect_norm = vectnorm(self.nodes[self.elems[0,1:]-1, 1:])
self.elset = Elset(self)
self.nset = Nset(self, refpoint=True, generate=False)
self.SPOS = Ab_surface(self, self.elset)
self.SNEG = Ab_surface(self, self.elset, type_surf='SNEG')
Outil.list_instance_outils.append(self)
Part.list_instances.append(self)
class Flan(Part):
list_instances_flans = []
def __init__(self, name, part_type, nodes, elems):
Part.__init__(self, name, part_type, nodes, elems)
self.vect_norm = vectnorm(self.nodes[self.elems[0,1:4]-1, 1:])
self.elset = Elset(self)
self.nset = Nset(self)
self.SPOS = Ab_surface(self, self.elset)
self.SNEG = Ab_surface(self, self.elset, type_surf='SNEG')
Flan.list_instances_flans.append(self)
Part.list_instances.append(self)
Both this Classes inherit from Part :
class Part():
list_instances = []
def __init__(self, name, part_type, nodes, elems):
self.name = name
self.name_instance = self.name + '-1'
self.part_type = part_type
self.elems = elems
self.nodes = nodes
offset = np.min(self.elems[:, 1:])-1
self.nodes[:, 0] -= offset
self.elems[:, 1:] -= offset
I cannot stress enough that I have no error message whatsoever.
What am I doing wrong here ?

You wrote __init__ with three trailing underscores instead of two in Outil.
Because of this, it doesn't get called -- Part.__init__ gets called instead. That's why the class is created but it lacks the attributes beyond what are in Part.

To solve this sort of problem, the best thing to do is to run the code through the debugger.
Get your classes into the python interpreter (import, paste, whatever you like), then call pdb: import pdb; pdb.run('Outil()'). You can now step through the code to see what is happening.