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Dynamically altering object types on instantiation

I have a MetaClass that, at the moment, simply returns an obj of a class.
From this MetaClass, I derieved two different classes. The difference in the classes is a dictionary that gets passed to __init__ for one of the classes but not for the other one.
If this dict only contains one single entry, I want python to return an instance of the other class instead of the one that was actually called.
class _MetaClass(type):
def __new__(cls, name, bases, dct):
return super(_MetaClass, cls).__new__(name, bases, **dct)
class Class1(object):
__metaclass__ = _MetaClass
def __init__(self, someargs):
pass
class Class2(object):
__metaclass__ = _MetaClass
def __init__(self, someargs, kwargs):
if len(kwargs) == 1:
return Class1(someargs)
else:
pass
TestInstance = Class2("foo", {"bar":"foo"}) #should now be Class1 instance because only one item in dct
If the dict, like in this case, has only len(dct) == 1, then it should create an instance of Class1 with the "foo" passed to its __init__ instead of returning an instance of Class2 as it normally would
I tried to implement the __new__ and __init__ methods for the MetaClass, but I could not figure out how to check the arguments that are actually passes on new class instantiation

You could create a handlerMethod to deal with the issue
def handler(yourDict):
if len(yourDict) == 1:
return Class2(yourDict)
else:
return Class1(yourDict)
and then call the handler instead of the constructor
TestInstance = handler(yourDict)

How can I delay the __init__ call until an attribute is accessed?

I have a test framework that requires test cases to be defined using the following class patterns:
class TestBase:
def __init__(self, params):
self.name = str(self.__class__)
print('initializing test: {} with params: {}'.format(self.name, params))
class TestCase1(TestBase):
def run(self):
print('running test: ' + self.name)
When I create and run a test, I get the following:
>>> test1 = TestCase1('test 1 params')
initializing test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'> with params: test 1 params
>>> test1.run()
running test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'>
The test framework searches for and loads all TestCase classes it can find, instantiates each one, then calls the run method for each test.
load_test(TestCase1(test_params1))
load_test(TestCase2(test_params2))
...
load_test(TestCaseN(test_params3))
...
for test in loaded_tests:
test.run()
However, I now have some test cases for which I don't want the __init__ method called until the time that the run method is called, but I have little control over the framework structure or methods. How can I delay the call to __init__ without redefining the __init__ or run methods?
Update
The speculations that this originated as an XY problem are correct. A coworker asked me this question a while back when I was maintaining said test framework. I inquired further about what he was really trying to achieve and we figured out a simpler workaround that didn't involve changing the framework or introducing metaclasses, etc.
However, I still think this is a question worth investigating: if I wanted to create new objects with "lazy" initialization ("lazy" as in lazy evaluation generators such as range, etc.) what would be the best way of accomplishing it? My best attempt so far is listed below, I'm interested in knowing if there's anything simpler or less verbose.

First Solution：use property.the elegant way of setter/getter in python.
class Bars(object):
def __init__(self):
self._foo = None
#property
def foo(self):
if not self._foo:
print("lazy initialization")
self._foo = [1,2,3]
return self._foo
if __name__ == "__main__":
f = Bars()
print(f.foo)
print(f.foo)
Second Solution:the proxy solution,and always implement by decorator.
In short, Proxy is a wrapper that wraps the object you need. Proxy could provide additional functionality to the object that it wraps and doesn't change the object's code. It's a surrogate which provide the abitity of control access to a object.there is the code come form user Cyclone.
class LazyProperty:
def __init__(self, method):
self.method = method
self.method_name = method.__name__
def __get__(self, obj, cls):
if not obj:
return None
value = self.method(obj)
print('value {}'.format(value))
setattr(obj, self.method_name, value)
return value
class test:
def __init__(self):
self._resource = None
#LazyProperty
def resource(self):
print("lazy")
self._resource = tuple(range(5))
return self._resource
if __name__ == '__main__':
t = test()
print(t.resource)
print(t.resource)
print(t.resource)
To be used for true one-time calculated lazy properties. I like it because it avoids sticking extra attributes on objects, and once activated does not waste time checking for attribute presence

Metaclass option
You can intercept the call to __init__ using a metaclass. Create the object with __new__ and overwrite the __getattribute__ method to check if __init__ has been called or not and call it if it hasn't.
class DelayInit(type):
def __call__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
def init_before_get(obj, attr):
if not object.__getattribute__(obj, '_initialized'):
obj.__init__(*args, **kwargs)
obj._initialized = True
return object.__getattribute__(obj, attr)
cls.__getattribute__ = init_before_get
new_obj = cls.__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
new_obj._initialized = False
return new_obj
class TestDelayed(TestCase1, metaclass=DelayInit):
pass
In the example below, you'll see that the init print won't occur until the run method is executed.
>>> new_test = TestDelayed('delayed test params')
>>> new_test.run()
initializing test: <class '__main__.TestDelayed'> with params: delayed test params
running test: <class '__main__.TestDelayed'>
Decorator option
You could also use a decorator that has a similar pattern to the metaclass above:
def delayinit(cls):
def init_before_get(obj, attr):
if not object.__getattribute__(obj, '_initialized'):
obj.__init__(*obj._init_args, **obj._init_kwargs)
obj._initialized = True
return object.__getattribute__(obj, attr)
cls.__getattribute__ = init_before_get
def construct(*args, **kwargs):
obj = cls.__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
obj._init_args = args
obj._init_kwargs = kwargs
obj._initialized = False
return obj
return construct
#delayinit
class TestDelayed(TestCase1):
pass
This will behave identically to the example above.

In Python, there is no way that you can avoid calling __init__ when you instantiate a class cls. If calling cls(args) returns an instance of cls, then the language guarantees that cls.__init__ will have been called.
So the only way to achieve something similar to what you are asking is to introduce another class that will postpone the calling of __init__ in the original class until an attribute of the instantiated class is being accessed.
Here is one way:
def delay_init(cls):
class Delay(cls):
def __init__(self, *arg, **kwarg):
self._arg = arg
self._kwarg = kwarg
def __getattribute__(self, name):
self.__class__ = cls
arg = self._arg
kwarg = self._kwarg
del self._arg
del self._kwarg
self.__init__(*arg, **kwarg)
return getattr(self, name)
return Delay
This wrapper function works by catching any attempt to access an attribute of the instantiated class. When such an attempt is made, it changes the instance's __class__ to the original class, calls the original __init__ method with the arguments that were used when the instance was created, and then returns the proper attribute. This function can be used as decorator for your TestCase1 class:
class TestBase:
def __init__(self, params):
self.name = str(self.__class__)
print('initializing test: {} with params: {}'.format(self.name, params))
class TestCase1(TestBase):
def run(self):
print('running test: ' + self.name)
>>> t1 = TestCase1("No delay")
initializing test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'> with params: No delay
>>> t2 = delay_init(TestCase1)("Delayed init")
>>> t1.run()
running test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'>
>>> t2.run()
initializing test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'> with params: Delayed init
running test: <class '__main__.TestCase1'>
>>>
Be careful where you apply this function though. If you decorate TestBase with delay_init, it will not work, because it will turn the TestCase1 instances into TestBase instances.

In my answer I'd like to focus on cases when one wants to instantiate a class whose initialiser (dunder init) has side effects. For instance, pysftp.Connection, creates an SSH connection, which may be undesired until it's actually used.
In a great blog series about conceiving of wrapt package (nit-picky decorator implementaion), the author describes Transparent object proxy. This code can be customised for the subject in question.
class LazyObject:
_factory = None
'''Callable responsible for creation of target object'''
_object = None
'''Target object created lazily'''
def __init__(self, factory):
self._factory = factory
def __getattr__(self, name):
if not self._object:
self._object = self._factory()
return getattr(self._object, name)
Then it can be used as:
obj = LazyObject(lambda: dict(foo = 'bar'))
obj.keys() # dict_keys(['foo'])
But len(obj), obj['foo'] and other language constructs which invoke Python object protocols (dunder methods, like __len__ and __getitem__) will not work. However, for many cases, which are limited to regular methods, this is a solution.
To proxy object protocol implementations, it's possible to use neither __getattr__, nor __getattribute__ (to do it in a generic way). The latter's documentation notes:
This method may still be bypassed when looking up special methods as the result of implicit invocation via language syntax or built-in functions. See Special method lookup.
As a complete solution is demanded, there are examples of manual implementations like werkzeug's LocalProxy and django's SimpleLazyObject. However a clever workaround is possible.
Luckily there's a dedicated package (based on wrapt) for the exact use case, lazy-object-proxy which is described in this blog post.
from lazy_object_proxy import Proxy
obj = Proxy(labmda: dict(foo = 'bar'))
obj.keys() # dict_keys(['foo'])
len(len(obj)) # 1
obj['foo'] # 'bar'

One alternative would be to write a wrapper that takes a class as input and returns a class with delayed initialization until any member is accessed. This could for example be done as this:
def lazy_init(cls):
class LazyInit(cls):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
self._initialized = False
def __getattr__(self, attr):
if not self.__dict__['_initialized']:
cls.__init__(self,
*self.__dict__['args'], **self.__dict__['kwargs'])
self._initialized = True
return self.__dict__[attr]
return LazyInit
This could then be used as such
load_test(lazy_init(TestCase1)(test_params1))
load_test(lazy_init(TestCase2)(test_params2))
...
load_test(lazy_init(TestCaseN)(test_params3))
...
for test in loaded_tests:
test.run()

Answering your original question (and the problem I think you are actually trying to solve), "How can I delay the init call until an attribute is accessed?": don't call init until you access the attribute.
Said another way: you can make the class initialization simultaneous with the attribute call. What you seem to actually want is 1) create a collection of TestCase# classes along with their associated parameters; 2) run each test case.
Probably your original problem came from thinking you had to initialize all your TestCase classes in order to create a list of them that you could iterate over. But in fact you can store class objects in lists, dicts etc. That means you can do whatever method you have for finding all TestCase classes and store those class objects in a dict with their relevant parameters. Then just iterate that dict and call each class with its run() method.
It might look like:
tests = {TestCase1: 'test 1 params', TestCase2: 'test 2 params', TestCase3: 'test 3 params'}
for test_case, param in tests.items():
test_case(param).run()

Overridding __new__
You could do this by overriding __new__ method and replacing __init__ method with a custom function.
def init(cls, real_init):
def wrapped(self, *args, **kwargs):
# This will run during the first call to `__init__`
# made after `__new__`. Here we re-assign the original
# __init__ back to class and assign a custom function
# to `instances.__init__`.
cls.__init__ = real_init
def new_init():
if new_init.called is False:
real_init(self, *args, **kwargs)
new_init.called = True
new_init.called = False
self.__init__ = new_init
return wrapped
class DelayInitMixin(object):
def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
cls.__init__ = init(cls, cls.__init__)
return object.__new__(cls)
class A(DelayInitMixin):
def __init__(self, a, b):
print('inside __init__')
self.a = sum(a)
self.b = sum(b)
def __getattribute__(self, attr):
init = object.__getattribute__(self, '__init__')
if not init.called:
init()
return object.__getattribute__(self, attr)
def run(self):
pass
def fun(self):
pass
Demo:
>>> a = A(range(1000), range(10000))
>>> a.run()
inside __init__
>>> a.a, a.b
(499500, 49995000)
>>> a.run(), a.__init__()
(None, None)
>>> b = A(range(100), range(10000))
>>> b.a, b.b
inside __init__
(4950, 49995000)
>>> b.run(), b.__init__()
(None, None)
Using cached properties
The idea is to do the heavy calculation only once by caching results. This approach will lead to much more readable code if the whole point of delaying initialization is improving performance.
Django comes with a nice decorator called #cached_property. I tend to use it a lot in both code and unit-tests for caching results of heavy properties.
A cached_property is a non-data descriptor. Hence once the key is set in instance's dictionary, the access to property would always get the value from there.
class cached_property(object):
"""
Decorator that converts a method with a single self argument into a
property cached on the instance.
Optional ``name`` argument allows you to make cached properties of other
methods. (e.g. url = cached_property(get_absolute_url, name='url') )
"""
def __init__(self, func, name=None):
self.func = func
self.__doc__ = getattr(func, '__doc__')
self.name = name or func.__name__
def __get__(self, instance, cls=None):
if instance is None:
return self
res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
return res
Usage:
class A:
#cached_property
def a(self):
print('calculating a')
return sum(range(1000))
#cached_property
def b(self):
print('calculating b')
return sum(range(10000))
Demo:
>>> a = A()
>>> a.a
calculating a
499500
>>> a.b
calculating b
49995000
>>> a.a, a.b
(499500, 49995000)

I think you can use a wrapper class to hold the real class you want to instance, and use call __init__ yourself in your code, like(Python 3 code):
class Wrapper:
def __init__(self, cls):
self.cls = cls
self.instance = None
def your_method(self, *args, **kwargs):
if not self.instance:
self.instnace = cls()
return self.instance(*args, **kwargs)
class YourClass:
def __init__(self):
print("calling __init__")
but it's a dump way, but without any trick.

static method called instaed of instance method [duplicate]

I'd like to do something like this:
class X:
#classmethod
def id(cls):
return cls.__name__
def id(self):
return self.__class__.__name__
And now call id() for either the class or an instance of it:
>>> X.id()
'X'
>>> X().id()
'X'
Obviously, this exact code doesn't work, but is there a similar way to make it work?
Or any other workarounds to get such behavior without too much "hacky" stuff?

Class and instance methods live in the same namespace and you cannot reuse names like that; the last definition of id will win in that case.
The class method will continue to work on instances however, there is no need to create a separate instance method; just use:
class X:
#classmethod
def id(cls):
return cls.__name__
because the method continues to be bound to the class:
>>> class X:
... #classmethod
... def id(cls):
... return cls.__name__
...
>>> X.id()
'X'
>>> X().id()
'X'
This is explicitly documented:
It can be called either on the class (such as C.f()) or on an instance (such as C().f()). The instance is ignored except for its class.
If you do need distinguish between binding to the class and an instance
If you need a method to work differently based on where it is being used on; bound to a class when accessed on the class, bound to the instance when accessed on the instance, you'll need to create a custom descriptor object.
The descriptor API is how Python causes functions to be bound as methods, and bind classmethod objects to the class; see the descriptor howto.
You can provide your own descriptor for methods by creating an object that has a __get__ method. Here is a simple one that switches what the method is bound to based on context, if the first argument to __get__ is None, then the descriptor is being bound to a class, otherwise it is being bound to an instance:
class class_or_instancemethod(classmethod):
def __get__(self, instance, type_):
descr_get = super().__get__ if instance is None else self.__func__.__get__
return descr_get(instance, type_)
This re-uses classmethod and only re-defines how it handles binding, delegating the original implementation for instance is None, and to the standard function __get__ implementation otherwise.
Note that in the method itself, you may then have to test, what it is bound to. isinstance(firstargument, type) is a good test for this:
>>> class X:
... #class_or_instancemethod
... def foo(self_or_cls):
... if isinstance(self_or_cls, type):
... return f"bound to the class, {self_or_cls}"
... else:
... return f"bound to the instance, {self_or_cls"
...
>>> X.foo()
"bound to the class, <class '__main__.X'>"
>>> X().foo()
'bound to the instance, <__main__.X object at 0x10ac7d580>'
An alternative implementation could use two functions, one for when bound to a class, the other when bound to an instance:
class hybridmethod:
def __init__(self, fclass, finstance=None, doc=None):
self.fclass = fclass
self.finstance = finstance
self.__doc__ = doc or fclass.__doc__
# support use on abstract base classes
self.__isabstractmethod__ = bool(
getattr(fclass, '__isabstractmethod__', False)
)
def classmethod(self, fclass):
return type(self)(fclass, self.finstance, None)
def instancemethod(self, finstance):
return type(self)(self.fclass, finstance, self.__doc__)
def __get__(self, instance, cls):
if instance is None or self.finstance is None:
# either bound to the class, or no instance method available
return self.fclass.__get__(cls, None)
return self.finstance.__get__(instance, cls)
This then is a classmethod with an optional instance method. Use it like you'd use a property object; decorate the instance method with #<name>.instancemethod:
>>> class X:
... #hybridmethod
... def bar(cls):
... return f"bound to the class, {cls}"
... #bar.instancemethod
... def bar(self):
... return f"bound to the instance, {self}"
...
>>> X.bar()
"bound to the class, <class '__main__.X'>"
>>> X().bar()
'bound to the instance, <__main__.X object at 0x10a010f70>'
Personally, my advice is to be cautious about using this; the exact same method altering behaviour based on the context can be confusing to use. However, there are use-cases for this, such as SQLAlchemy's differentiation between SQL objects and SQL values, where column objects in a model switch behaviour like this; see their Hybrid Attributes documentation. The implementation for this follows the exact same pattern as my hybridmethod class above.

I have no idea what's your actual use case is, but you can do something like this using a descriptor:
class Desc(object):
def __get__(self, ins, typ):
if ins is None:
print 'Called by a class.'
return lambda : typ.__name__
else:
print 'Called by an instance.'
return lambda : ins.__class__.__name__
class X(object):
id = Desc()
x = X()
print x.id()
print X.id()
Output
Called by an instance.
X
Called by a class.
X

It can be done, quite succinctly, by binding the instance-bound version of your method explicitly to the instance (rather than to the class). Python will invoke the instance attribute found in Class().__dict__ when Class().foo() is called (because it searches the instance's __dict__ before the class'), and the class-bound method found in Class.__dict__ when Class.foo() is called.
This has a number of potential use cases, though whether they are anti-patterns is open for debate:
class Test:
def __init__(self):
self.check = self.__check
#staticmethod
def check():
print('Called as class')
def __check(self):
print('Called as instance, probably')
>>> Test.check()
Called as class
>>> Test().check()
Called as instance, probably
Or... let's say we want to be able to abuse stuff like map():
class Str(str):
def __init__(self, *args):
self.split = self.__split
#staticmethod
def split(sep=None, maxsplit=-1):
return lambda string: string.split(sep, maxsplit)
def __split(self, sep=None, maxsplit=-1):
return super().split(sep, maxsplit)
>>> s = Str('w-o-w')
>>> s.split('-')
['w', 'o', 'w']
>>> Str.split('-')(s)
['w', 'o', 'w']
>>> list(map(Str.split('-'), [s]*3))
[['w', 'o', 'w'], ['w', 'o', 'w'], ['w', 'o', 'w']]

"types" provides something quite interesting since Python 3.4: DynamicClassAttribute
It is not doing 100% of what you had in mind, but it seems to be closely related, and you might need to tweak a bit my metaclass but, rougly, you can have this;
from types import DynamicClassAttribute
class XMeta(type):
def __getattr__(self, value):
if value == 'id':
return XMeta.id # You may want to change a bit that line.
#property
def id(self):
return "Class {}".format(self.__name__)
That would define your class attribute. For the instance attribute:
class X(metaclass=XMeta):
#DynamicClassAttribute
def id(self):
return "Instance {}".format(self.__class__.__name__)
It might be a bit overkill especially if you want to stay away from metaclasses. It's a trick I'd like to explore on my side, so I just wanted to share this hidden jewel, in case you can polish it and make it shine!
>>> X().id
'Instance X'
>>> X.id
'Class X'
Voila...

In your example, you could simply delete the second method entirely, since both the staticmethod and the class method do the same thing.
If you wanted them to do different things:
class X:
def id(self=None):
if self is None:
# It's being called as a static method
else:
# It's being called as an instance method

(Python 3 only) Elaborating on the idea of a pure-Python implementation of #classmethod, we can declare an #class_or_instance_method as a decorator, which is actually a class implementing the attribute descriptor protocol:
import inspect
class class_or_instance_method(object):
def __init__(self, f):
self.f = f
def __get__(self, instance, owner):
if instance is not None:
class_or_instance = instance
else:
class_or_instance = owner
def newfunc(*args, **kwargs):
return self.f(class_or_instance, *args, **kwargs)
return newfunc
class A:
#class_or_instance_method
def foo(self_or_cls, a, b, c=None):
if inspect.isclass(self_or_cls):
print("Called as a class method")
else:
print("Called as an instance method")

Naming conventions for class method vs instance method

I have two methods, one for the individual Instance, and one for every Instance in that class:
class MasterMatches(models.Model):
#classmethod
def update_url_if_any_matches_has_one(cls):
# apply to all instances, call instance method.
def update_url_if_any_matches_has_one(self):
# do something
Should I name these the same? Or, what is a good naming convention here?

The question of using the same names can be clarified by understanding how decorators work.
#dec
def foo(x):
print(x)
translates to
def foo(x):
print(x)
foo = dec(foo)
In your example the decorator syntax can be expanded to
class MasterMatches(models.Model):
def update_url_if_any_matches_has_one(cls):
# apply to all instances, call instance method.
update_url_if_any_matches_has_one = classmethod(update_url_if_any_matches_has_one)
def update_url_if_any_matches_has_one(self):
# do something
The former implementation of update_url_if_any_matches_has_one will be overwritten by the latter.

Usually use self declaration style. #classmethod use only if method not works with class instance fields.
Function decorated as #classmethod takes the first argument is the class type, while normal method takes instance of object.
class A:
#classmethod
def a(cls):
print(cls)
def b(self):
print(self)
a = A()
a.a()
a.b()
# Output:
# <class '__main__.A'>
# <__main__.A object at 0x03FC5DF0>
It can be useful if you have a static class fields. The to access therm you don't need explicitly specify the class name. But you don't get access to instance fields. Example:
class A:
field = 1
#classmethod
def a(cls):
print(cls.field)
def b(self):
self.field = 2
print(self.field, A.field)
a = A()
a.a()
a.b()
# Outputs:
# 1
# 2 1

How do I directly mock a superclass with python mock?

I am using the python mock framework for testing (http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/mock/) and I want to mock out a superclass and focus on testing the subclasses' added behavior.
(For those interested I have extended pymongo.collection.Collection and I want to only test my added behavior. I do not want to have to run mongodb as another process for testing purposes.)
For this discussion, A is the superclass and B is the subclass. Furthermore, I define direct and indirect superclass calls as shown below:
class A(object):
def method(self):
...
def another_method(self):
...
class B(A):
def direct_superclass_call(self):
...
A.method(self)
def indirect_superclass_call(self):
...
super(A, self).another_method()
Approach #1
Define a mock class for A called MockA and use mock.patch to substitute it for the test at runtime. This handles direct superclass calls. Then manipulate B.__bases__ to handle indirect superclass calls. (see below)
The issue that arises is that I have to write MockA and in some cases (as in the case for pymongo.collection.Collection) this can involve a lot of work to unravel all of the internal calls to mock out.
Approach #2
The desired approach is to somehow use a mock.Mock() class to handle calls on the the mock just in time, as well as defined return_value or side_effect in place in the test. In this manner, I have to do less work by avoiding the definition of MockA.
The issue that I am having is that I cannot figure out how to alter B.__bases__ so that an instance of mock.Mock() can be put in place as a superclass (I must need to somehow do some direct binding here). Thus far I have determined, that super() examines the MRO and then calls the first class that defines the method in question. I cannot figure out how to get a superclass to handle the check to it and succeed if it comes across a mock class. __getattr__ does not seem to be used in this case. I want super to to think that the method is defined at this point and then use the mock.Mock() functionality as usual.
How does super() discover what attributes are defined within the class in the MRO sequence? And is there a way for me to interject here and to somehow get it to utilize a mock.Mock() on the fly?
import mock
class A(object):
def __init__(self, value):
self.value = value
def get_value_direct(self):
return self.value
def get_value_indirect(self):
return self.value
class B(A):
def __init__(self, value):
A.__init__(self, value)
def get_value_direct(self):
return A.get_value_direct(self)
def get_value_indirect(self):
return super(B, self).get_value_indirect()
# approach 1 - use a defined MockA
class MockA(object):
def __init__(self, value):
pass
def get_value_direct(self):
return 0
def get_value_indirect(self):
return 0
B.__bases__ = (MockA, ) # - mock superclass
with mock.patch('__main__.A', MockA):
b2 = B(7)
print '\nApproach 1'
print 'expected result = 0'
print 'direct =', b2.get_value_direct()
print 'indirect =', b2.get_value_indirect()
B.__bases__ = (A, ) # - original superclass
# approach 2 - use mock module to mock out superclass
# what does XXX need to be below to use mock.Mock()?
#B.__bases__ = (XXX, )
with mock.patch('__main__.A') as mymock:
b3 = B(7)
mymock.get_value_direct.return_value = 0
mymock.get_value_indirect.return_value = 0
print '\nApproach 2'
print 'expected result = 0'
print 'direct =', b3.get_value_direct()
print 'indirect =', b3.get_value_indirect() # FAILS HERE as the old superclass is called
#B.__bases__ = (A, ) # - original superclass

is there a way for me to interject here and to somehow get it to utilize a mock.Mock() on the fly?
There may be better approaches, but you can always write your own super() and inject it into the module that contains the class you're mocking. Have it return whatever it should based on what's calling it.
You can either just define super() in the current namespace (in which case the redefinition only applies to the current module after the definition), or you can import __builtin__ and apply the redefinition to __builtin__.super, in which case it will apply globally in the Python session.
You can capture the original super function (if you need to call it from your implementation) using a default argument:
def super(type, obj=None, super=super):
# inside the function, super refers to the built-in

I played around with mocking out super() as suggested by kindall. Unfortunately, after a great deal of effort it became quite complicated to handle complex inheritance cases.
After some work I realized that super() accesses the __dict__ of classes directly when resolving attributes through the MRO (it does not do a getattr type of call). The solution is to extend a mock.MagicMock() object and wrap it with a class to accomplish this. The wrapped class can then be placed in the __bases__ variable of a subclass.
The wrapped object reflects all defined attributes of the target class to the __dict__ of the wrapping class so that super() calls resolve to the properly patched in attributes within the internal MagicMock().
The following code is the solution that I have found to work thus far. Note that I actually implement this within a context handler. Also, care has to be taken to patch in the proper namespaces if importing from other modules.
This is a simple example illustrating the approach:
from mock import MagicMock
import inspect
class _WrappedMagicMock(MagicMock):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
object.__setattr__(self, '_mockclass_wrapper', None)
super(_WrappedMagicMock, self).__init__(*args, **kwds)
def wrap(self, cls):
# get defined attribtues of spec class that need to be preset
base_attrs = dir(type('Dummy', (object,), {}))
attrs = inspect.getmembers(self._spec_class)
new_attrs = [a[0] for a in attrs if a[0] not in base_attrs]
# pre set mocks for attributes in the target mock class
for name in new_attrs:
setattr(cls, name, getattr(self, name))
# eat up any attempts to initialize the target mock class
setattr(cls, '__init__', lambda *args, **kwds: None)
object.__setattr__(self, '_mockclass_wrapper', cls)
def unwrap(self):
object.__setattr__(self, '_mockclass_wrapper', None)
def __setattr__(self, name, value):
super(_WrappedMagicMock, self).__setattr__(name, value)
# be sure to reflect to changes wrapper class if activated
if self._mockclass_wrapper is not None:
setattr(self._mockclass_wrapper, name, value)
def _get_child_mock(self, **kwds):
# when created children mocks need only be MagicMocks
return MagicMock(**kwds)
class A(object):
x = 1
def __init__(self, value):
self.value = value
def get_value_direct(self):
return self.value
def get_value_indirect(self):
return self.value
class B(A):
def __init__(self, value):
super(B, self).__init__(value)
def f(self):
return 2
def get_value_direct(self):
return A.get_value_direct(self)
def get_value_indirect(self):
return super(B, self).get_value_indirect()
# nominal behavior
b = B(3)
assert b.get_value_direct() == 3
assert b.get_value_indirect() == 3
assert b.f() == 2
assert b.x == 1
# using mock class
MockClass = type('MockClassWrapper', (), {})
mock = _WrappedMagicMock(A)
mock.wrap(MockClass)
# patch the mock in
B.__bases__ = (MockClass, )
A = MockClass
# set values within the mock
mock.x = 0
mock.get_value_direct.return_value = 0
mock.get_value_indirect.return_value = 0
# mocked behavior
b = B(7)
assert b.get_value_direct() == 0
assert b.get_value_indirect() == 0
assert b.f() == 2
assert b.x == 0