I have a generic class definition, something like this -
class Foo(object):
property = 1
def __init__(self, ...):
...
I wish to create a large number of classes, each of which has a different value of property, and store these classes in a list. The classes in this list will be subsequently used to create several objects.
What is the best way to do this?
While I doubt that there isn't a better solution to whatever your underlying problem might be, you can create classes dynamically using type:
class Foo(object):
def __init__(self, x):
self.x = x
# class-name---vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv--class-attributes
klasses = [type('Foo{}'.format(n), (Foo,), {'property': n}) for n in range(5)]
# parent-classes ^^^^^^
klasses[4]
# <class '__main__.Foo4'>
klasses[4].property
# 4
inst = klasses[4]('bar')
inst.x
# 'bar'
c = []
for i in range(5):
class X(object):
property = i
def __init__(self):
print(self.property)
c.append(X)
c[0]() # will print 0
c[4]() # will print 4
But this has a bunch of drawbacks. I also think that the comment given below the question is remarkable. Very likely you strive for a solution which is not the best for your original problem.
If you really want to do it, then sure you can create classes dynamically using type
class BaseClass(object):
# the code that needs to be common among all classes
properties = [1, 2, 3]
classes = [type("class_{0}".format(i), (BaseClass,), {'property': property}) for i, property in enumerate(properties)]
However, you probably need to think about your design. I don't know about the problem you want to solve, but perhaps keeping the property variable as instance one would make more sense.
I think the best way would just be to iterate i=0 to n-1, appending a new object to the end of the list. You can then use i to index into the list and change the value of property that way.
Related
This question already has answers here:
How to access (get or set) object attribute given string corresponding to name of that attribute
(3 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I have a Python class that have attributes named: date1, date2, date3, etc.
During runtime, I have a variable i, which is an integer.
What I want to do is to access the appropriate date attribute in run time based on the value of i.
For example,
if i == 1, I want to access myobject.date1
if i == 2, I want to access myobject.date2
And I want to do something similar for class instead of attribute.
For example, I have a bunch of classes: MyClass1, MyClass2, MyClass3, etc. And I have a variable k.
if k == 1, I want to instantiate a new instance of MyClass1
if k == 2, I want to instantiate a new instance of MyClass2
How can i do that?
EDIT
I'm hoping to avoid using a giant if-then-else statement to select the appropriate attribute/class.
Is there a way in Python to compose the class name on the fly using the value of a variable?
You can use getattr() to access a property when you don't know its name until runtime:
obj = myobject()
i = 7
date7 = getattr(obj, 'date%d' % i) # same as obj.date7
If you keep your numbered classes in a module called foo, you can use getattr() again to access them by number.
foo.py:
class Class1: pass
class Class2: pass
[ etc ]
bar.py:
import foo
i = 3
someClass = getattr(foo, "Class%d" % i) # Same as someClass = foo.Class3
obj = someClass() # someClass is a pointer to foo.Class3
# short version:
obj = getattr(foo, "Class%d" % i)()
Having said all that, you really should avoid this sort of thing because you will never be able to find out where these numbered properties and classes are being used except by reading through your entire codebase. You are better off putting everything in a dictionary.
For the first case, you should be able to do:
getattr(myobject, 'date%s' % i)
For the second case, you can do:
myobject = locals()['MyClass%s' % k]()
However, the fact that you need to do this in the first place can be a sign that you're approaching the problem in a very non-Pythonic way.
OK, well... It seems like this needs a bit of work. Firstly, for your date* things, they should be perhaps stored as a dict of attributes. eg, myobj.dates[1], so on.
For the classes, it sounds like you want polymorphism. All of your MyClass* classes should have a common ancestor. The ancestor's __new__ method should figure out which of its children to instantiate.
One way for the parent to know what to make is to keep a dict of the children. There are ways that the parent class doesn't need to enumerate its children by searching for all of its subclasses but it's a bit more complex to implement. See here for more info on how you might take that approach. Read the comments especially, they expand on it.
class Parent(object):
_children = {
1: MyClass1,
2: MyClass2,
}
def __new__(k):
return object.__new__(Parent._children[k])
class MyClass1(Parent):
def __init__(self):
self.foo = 1
class MyClass2(Parent):
def __init__(self):
self.foo = 2
bar = Parent(1)
print bar.foo # 1
baz = Parent(2)
print bar.foo # 2
Thirdly, you really should rethink your variable naming. Don't use numbers to enumerate your variables, instead give them meaningful names. i and k are bad to use as they are by convention reserved for loop indexes.
A sample of your existing code would be very helpful in improving it.
to get a list of all the attributes, try:
dir(<class instance>)
I agree with Daenyth, but if you're feeling sassy you can use the dict method that comes with all classes:
>>> class nullclass(object):
def nullmethod():
pass
>>> nullclass.__dict__.keys()
['__dict__', '__module__', '__weakref__', 'nullmethod', '__doc__']
>>> nullclass.__dict__["nullmethod"]
<function nullmethod at 0x013366A8>
I asked about this yesterday, but I botched writing up my question so much that by the time I realized what I typed, all the replies were solutions to a different miss-worded problem I didn't have. Sorry for the foolish type up last time.
I have two Classes, and I want them to able to share a common list without having to pass it as a parameter. I also want to create a method that will scramble that list, and I want the list to be the same newly scrambled list in both Class A and Class B.
I figured this was a case for inheritance, so I made a Parent Class and set the list as a class attribute and made a method to scramble, but the list variable is oddly enough being now treated as an instance variable of the children.
class A:
lst = []
target = 0
def generateNewLst(self, randomRange, listSize):
self.lst = [random.randint(*randomRange) for i in range(listSize)]
class B(A):
pass
class C(A):
pass
My inherited method works just fine:
a = B()
a.generateNewLst((0, 10), 3)
a.lst # => [2,5,7]
but when I create another B:
b = B()
b.lst # => [] not shared when I want it to be
This CANNOT be solved with a class attribute in B, because that won't solve the more important below issue...
c = C()
c.lst # => [] not shared when I want it to be
TL;DR: I want a Class attribute that shares between every instance of both classes. I want a.lst == b.lst == c.lst every time I run generateNewList on ONE of any of those instances.
How should I reorganize my setup to work the way I want it to?
You need a static variable. To do so make the method generateNewLst static and let him update the static variable lst and not a member variable lst that would belong to the instance of the class and not to the class itself.
class A:
lst = []
#staticmethod
def generateNewLst(randomRange, listSize):
A.lst = [random.randint(*randomRange) for i in range(listSize)]
class B(A):
pass
class C(A):
pass
Then once you generate the lst you will have it for all classes.
a = B()
B.generateNewLst((0, 10), 3)
# the same list is available for all classes
print(A.lst)
print(B.lst)
print(C.lst)
Suppose you have two classes, A and B. Class B is defined inside the class A. I want to access the variables and methods of the outer class while inside the inner class. The code here is a toy example but has the essentials of what I want to demonstrate:
class A:
a = 'even'
b = 'odd'
class B:
def __init__(self, n):
if n%2 == 0: self.num = a
if n%2 == 1: self.num = b
self.description = A.desc()
def __getitem__(self, i):
return self.B(i)
def desc(self):
return a + '-' + b
>>> c = A()
>>> d = c[4]
>>> TypeError: unbound method desc() must be called with A instance as first argument (got nothing instead)
Here the method desc does some work on the variables of the class A and produces output. Class A is initialized correctly and you can access the variables a and b, even from the inner scope, given that you don't define the description variable. However, I cannot find a way to call the outer scope class methods desc. Is it possible to use the method desc in B without instantiating class A?
Explanation on why I use such a pattern:
Variables a and b in my program are rather big. I only need to initialize them once. In addition, I don't want these variables to float around in the program but to be only accessible to the inner class. Adding to all these is the fact that I can use the A.__getitem__ to extract 'slices' of the big data when needed. So the outer class provides me with hiding/encapsulation of the data, the indexing operator (through __getitem__) and all the routines required for extraction of slices of data (here the method desc. The inner class, B, provides the bundling of useful information from the big data for each index. This, most likely, is not the optimal design for achieving the described task. I am open and eager to hear your opinion regarding the alternative patterns.
I can't see any reason for you to be using classes here, let alone nested ones. In any case, there is almost never a reason to nest classes in Python, since inner classes don't get any special access to the outer class.
However if you want to allow anything to access a method without instantiating the object, you can make it a classmethod:
#classmethod
def desc(self):
return a + '-' + b
But I can't see why you would do any of this. Also, nothing here is a closure.
My Class:
class myClass:
pass
I am looking to recreate this effect:
x = myClass()
y = myClass()
z = myClass()
within a for loop because the number of times I need to loop will be varied each time.
Trying this:
x = 3
for i in range(x):
cls = myClass()
doesn't work because on each iteration I recreate the class instance.
My thinking is that on each loop I need to create a copy of the class and store that in a dict for referencing. So my questions are:
Is this the right approach?
How do I create a copy of a class?
My attempts to create a class so far have been unsuccessful as the class isn't totally individual.
x = deepcopy(cls)
CopyOfCls = type('CopyOfCls', cls.__bases__, dict(cls.__dict__))
EDIT: Answerers revealed that I was actually looking at creating multiple class instances.
You don't need to copy a class to make multiple instances of that class.
items = []
for i in range(10):
items.append(myClass())
items now contains ten separate myClass instances. You can access them individually with indexing, ex. items[3].
I want to create instance objects automatically as I explained in the following:
Class MyClass:
def __init__(self,x):
self.x = x
list = ["A","B"]
I want to create the following but automatically, means to loop through the list and create identical object for each element:
A = MyClass(text)
B = MyClass(text)
e.g. like the following which doesn't work:
# this doesn't work but explains more what I need
for i in list:
i = MyClass(text)
Thanks to all of your help!
In general, you can't and shouldn't shove things into your namespace like that. It's better to store those instances in a dict or a list
Class MyClass:
def __init__(self,x):
self.x = x
lst = ["A","B"] # don't use list as an identifier
myclasses = {k: MyClass(text) for k in lst}
Now your instances are
myclasses['A'], myclasses['B'] etc.
If you really want to create a handful of variables in your namespace:
A, B = (MyClass(text) for x in range(2))
note that this means you need to be explicit. You can't get the A,B from a file or user input etc.
Don't be tempted to use exec to pull this off. It's probably the wrong way to go about solving your problem. Tell us why you think you need to do it instead.