Advanced Function and Class Concepts in Python

programming review

Table of Contents:

functions and classes advanced

Functions

Function inside a function

This is an easy concept almost any programming language has:

def count():
    def count_to(n):
        for i in range(1, n+1):
            print(i)

    count_to(3)
count()

Out:

1
2
3

Closure

A closure is very similar to simple nested function, except it references one or more variables from its enclosing scope.

def count():
    n=3
    def count_to(n):
        for i in range(1, n+1):
            print(i)

    count_to(n)
count()

Out:

1
2
3

Methods and functions difference

Python built-in type() can provide good debugging information.

Example:

class C:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def m1(self, x):
        print("Excellent {}".format(x))

    @classmethod
    def m2(cls, x):
        print("Excellent cls {}".format(x))

    @staticmethod
    def m3(x):
        print("Excellent static {}".format(x))    

ci=C("John", 36)
L=dir(C) # c is a class
for i in L:
    print("C::", i, type(eval('ci.'+i)))

Output:

C:: m1 <class 'method'>
C:: m2 <class 'method'>
C:: m3 <class 'function'>

On the other hand we know that anything we define out-of-the-class with def keyword is a function:

def foo():
    pass
type(foo)  # function

Function decorators

Function decorators allow you to execute code before and after the function itself. Here is a basic example.

def decorator1(func):
    def stub():
        print("before f1")
        func()
        print("after f1")
    return stub

@decorator1
def f1():
    print("f1")

f1()

Out:

before f1
f1
after f1

Partials

Partials are imported from functools. They enable you to create new kind of functions or classes of type (functools.partial).

This new function will have some implicit parameters.

The partial is like a function without a body, entirely dependent on the host function being specified, but with some parameter predefined.

Example:

from functools import partial 
def multiply(x,y): return x * y 

# create a new kind of function that multiplies by 2 
fdouble = partial(multiply,2) 
fdouble(4)

Out:

8

type(fdouble)

Out:

functools.partial

Classes

Partials

Partials are not just functions, they can help us define a class:

from functools import partial

class C:
    def __init__(self, a,b):
        pass

c = C(1,2)  
print(type(c))
cp = partial(C,1)
print(cp)
print(type(cp))

def fun1(a,b,c):
    print(a,b,c)
    return a+b+c

fun2 = partial(fun1,c=3)
fun2(4,5)
print(fun2)
print(type(fun2))

Out:

<class '__main__.C'>
functools.partial(<class '__main__.C'>, 1)
<class 'functools.partial'>
4 5 3
functools.partial(<function fun1 at 0x00000298EA515708>, c=3)
<class 'functools.partial'>

You can use inspect module:

class SimulationApi(object):

  def hello(self):
    return "Hi"

  def echo(self, string):
    return string

  def get_foo(self):
    return self.foo

  def __init__(self):
    self.foo = 50


import inspect
inspect.getmembers(SimulationApi)

Out:

[('__class__', type),
 ('__delattr__', <slot wrapper '__delattr__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__dict__',
  mappingproxy({'__module__': '__main__',
                'hello': <function __main__.SimulationApi.hello(self)>,
                'echo': <function __main__.SimulationApi.echo(self, string)>,
                'get_foo': <function __main__.SimulationApi.get_foo(self)>,
                '__init__': <function __main__.SimulationApi.__init__(self)>,
                '__dict__': <attribute '__dict__' of 'SimulationApi' objects>,
                '__weakref__': <attribute '__weakref__' of 'SimulationApi' objects>,
                '__doc__': None})),
 ('__dir__', <method '__dir__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__doc__', None),
 ('__eq__', <slot wrapper '__eq__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__format__', <method '__format__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__ge__', <slot wrapper '__ge__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__getattribute__', <slot wrapper '__getattribute__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__gt__', <slot wrapper '__gt__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__hash__', <slot wrapper '__hash__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__init__', <function __main__.SimulationApi.__init__(self)>),
 ('__init_subclass__', <function SimulationApi.__init_subclass__>),
 ('__le__', <slot wrapper '__le__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__lt__', <slot wrapper '__lt__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__module__', '__main__'),
 ('__ne__', <slot wrapper '__ne__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__new__', <function object.__new__(*args, **kwargs)>),
 ('__reduce__', <method '__reduce__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__reduce_ex__', <method '__reduce_ex__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__repr__', <slot wrapper '__repr__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__setattr__', <slot wrapper '__setattr__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__sizeof__', <method '__sizeof__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__str__', <slot wrapper '__str__' of 'object' objects>),
 ('__subclasshook__', <function SimulationApi.__subclasshook__>),
 ('__weakref__', <attribute '__weakref__' of 'SimulationApi' objects>),
 ('echo', <function __main__.SimulationApi.echo(self, string)>),
 ('get_foo', <function __main__.SimulationApi.get_foo(self)>),
 ('hello', <function __main__.SimulationApi.hello(self)>)]

Your methods (the methods you like to get info) are also the SimulationApi class dictionary dict.

You can get the full code for your echo() function like this:

import inspect
lines = inspect.getsource(SimulationApi.echo)
print(lines)

  def echo(self, string):
    return string

Printing class types

Example:

class test(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.a = 1
        self.b = "abc"

test_obj = test()
print(vars(test_obj))


for k, v in vars(test_obj).items():
    print('variable is {0}: and variable value is {1}, of type {2}'.format(k,v, type(v)))

Out:

{'a': 1, 'b': 'abc'}
variable is a: and variable value is 1, of type <class 'int'>
variable is b: and variable value is abc, of type <class 'str'>

Get class variables without instantiating

It is possible to do that using the type keyword in Python. There you have the example like this:

class X:
     a = 1

X = type('X', (object,), dict(a=1))
print(X)

Out:

<class '__main__.X'>

What is class dict?

Class dict is a mappingproxy. A mappingproxy is simply a dict with no __setattr__ method.

You can check out and refer to this code.

from types import MappingProxyType
d={'key': "value"}
m = MappingProxyType(d)
print(type(m)) # <class 'mappingproxy'>
m['key']='new' #TypeError: 'mappingproxy' object does not support item assignment

mappingproxy is since Python 3.3. The following code shows dict types:

class C:pass
ci=C()
print(type(C.__dict__)) #<class 'mappingproxy'>
print(type(ci.__dict__)) #<class 'dict'>

How to add property to a class dynamically?

class C:
    def __init__(self):
        self._x=None

    def g(self):
        return self._x

    def s(self, x):
        self._x = x

    def d(self):
        del self._x

    def s2(self,x):
        self._x=x+x

    x=property(g,s,d)

c = C()
c.x="a"
print(c.x)
C.x=property(C.g, C.s2)
C.x=C.x.deleter(C.d)
c2 = C()
c2.x="a"
print(c2.x)

Out:

a
aa

getattr(object, 'x') is completely equivalent to object.x.

Appendix

Printing

Python dir command can’t provide you all. It’s just a list of what you have inside a module.

How to provide also the type of the object?

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# type(plt) # module
# dir(plt) # what is in the plot object
d=dir(plt)

def dirtype(d):
    for i in d:
        print(i, type(eval('plt.'+i)))

dirtype(d)

Out:

Annotation <class 'type'>
Arrow <class 'type'>
Artist <class 'type'>
AutoLocator <class 'type'>
Axes <class 'type'>
Button <class 'type'>
Circle <class 'type'>
Figure <class 'type'>
FigureCanvasBase <class 'type'>
FixedFormatter <class 'type'>
FixedLocator <class 'type'>
FormatStrFormatter <class 'type'>
Formatter <class 'type'>
FuncFormatter <class 'type'>
GridSpec <class 'type'>
IndexLocator <class 'type'>
Line2D <class 'type'>
LinearLocator <class 'type'>
Locator <class 'type'>
LogFormatter <class 'type'>
LogFormatterExponent <class 'type'>
LogFormatterMathtext <class 'type'>
LogLocator <class 'type'>
MaxNLocator <class 'type'>
MultipleLocator <class 'type'>
Normalize <class 'type'>
NullFormatter <class 'type'>
NullLocator <class 'type'>
Number <class 'abc.ABCMeta'>
PolarAxes <class 'type'>
Polygon <class 'type'>
Rectangle <class 'type'>
ScalarFormatter <class 'type'>
Slider <class 'type'>
Subplot <class 'type'>
SubplotTool <class 'type'>
Text <class 'type'>
TickHelper <class 'type'>
Widget <class 'type'>
_INSTALL_FIG_OBSERVER <class 'bool'>
_IP_REGISTERED <class 'function'>
__builtins__ <class 'dict'>
__cached__ <class 'str'>
__doc__ <class 'str'>
__file__ <class 'str'>
__loader__ <class '_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader'>
__name__ <class 'str'>
__package__ <class 'str'>
__spec__ <class '_frozen_importlib.ModuleSpec'>
_auto_draw_if_interactive <class 'function'>
_backend_mod <class 'module'>
_get_running_interactive_framework <class 'function'>
_interactive_bk <class 'list'>
_log <class 'logging.Logger'>
_pylab_helpers <class 'module'>
_setp <class 'function'>
_setup_pyplot_info_docstrings <class 'function'>
_show <class 'function'>
acorr <class 'function'>
angle_spectrum <class 'function'>
annotate <class 'function'>
arrow <class 'function'>
autoscale <class 'function'>
autumn <class 'function'>
axes <class 'function'>
axhline <class 'function'>
axhspan <class 'function'>
axis <class 'function'>
axvline <class 'function'>
axvspan <class 'function'>
bar <class 'function'>
barbs <class 'function'>
barh <class 'function'>
bone <class 'function'>
box <class 'function'>
boxplot <class 'function'>
broken_barh <class 'function'>
cbook <class 'module'>
cla <class 'function'>
clabel <class 'function'>
clf <class 'function'>
clim <class 'function'>
close <class 'function'>
cm <class 'module'>
cohere <class 'function'>
colorbar <class 'function'>
colormaps <class 'function'>
connect <class 'function'>
contour <class 'function'>
contourf <class 'function'>
cool <class 'function'>
copper <class 'function'>
csd <class 'function'>
cycler <class 'function'>
dedent <class 'function'>
delaxes <class 'function'>
deprecated <class 'function'>
disconnect <class 'function'>
docstring <class 'module'>
draw <class 'function'>
draw_all <class 'method'>
draw_if_interactive <class 'function'>
errorbar <class 'function'>
eventplot <class 'function'>
figaspect <class 'function'>
figimage <class 'function'>
figlegend <class 'function'>
fignum_exists <class 'function'>
figtext <class 'function'>
figure <class 'function'>
fill <class 'function'>
fill_between <class 'function'>
fill_betweenx <class 'function'>
findobj <class 'function'>
flag <class 'function'>
functools <class 'module'>
gca <class 'function'>
gcf <class 'function'>
gci <class 'function'>
get <class 'function'>
get_backend <class 'function'>
get_cmap <class 'function'>
get_current_fig_manager <class 'function'>
get_figlabels <class 'function'>
get_fignums <class 'function'>
get_plot_commands <class 'function'>
get_scale_docs <class 'function'>
get_scale_names <class 'function'>
getp <class 'function'>
ginput <class 'function'>
gray <class 'function'>
grid <class 'function'>
hexbin <class 'function'>
hist <class 'function'>
hist2d <class 'function'>
hlines <class 'function'>
hot <class 'function'>
hsv <class 'function'>
importlib <class 'module'>
imread <class 'function'>
imsave <class 'function'>
imshow <class 'function'>
inferno <class 'function'>
inspect <class 'module'>
install_repl_displayhook <class 'function'>
interactive <class 'function'>
ioff <class 'function'>
ion <class 'function'>
isinteractive <class 'function'>
jet <class 'function'>
legend <class 'function'>
locator_params <class 'function'>
logging <class 'module'>
loglog <class 'function'>
magma <class 'function'>
magnitude_spectrum <class 'function'>
margins <class 'function'>
matplotlib <class 'module'>
matshow <class 'function'>
minorticks_off <class 'function'>
minorticks_on <class 'function'>
mlab <class 'module'>
new_figure_manager <class 'method'>
nipy_spectral <class 'function'>
np <class 'module'>
pause <class 'function'>
pcolor <class 'function'>
pcolormesh <class 'function'>
phase_spectrum <class 'function'>
pie <class 'function'>
pink <class 'function'>
plasma <class 'function'>
plot <class 'function'>
plot_date <class 'function'>
plotfile <class 'function'>
plotting <class 'function'>
polar <class 'function'>
prism <class 'function'>
psd <class 'function'>
pylab_setup <class 'function'>
quiver <class 'function'>
quiverkey <class 'function'>
rc <class 'function'>
rcParams <class 'matplotlib.RcParams'>
rcParamsDefault <class 'matplotlib.RcParams'>
rcParamsOrig <class 'matplotlib.RcParams'>
rc_context <class 'function'>
rcdefaults <class 'function'>
rcsetup <class 'module'>
re <class 'module'>
register_cmap <class 'function'>
rgrids <class 'function'>
savefig <class 'function'>
sca <class 'function'>
scatter <class 'function'>
sci <class 'function'>
semilogx <class 'function'>
semilogy <class 'function'>
set_cmap <class 'function'>
set_loglevel <class 'function'>
setp <class 'function'>
show <class 'function'>
silent_list <class 'type'>
specgram <class 'function'>
spring <class 'function'>
spy <class 'function'>
stackplot <class 'function'>
stem <class 'function'>
step <class 'function'>
streamplot <class 'function'>
style <class 'module'>
subplot <class 'function'>
subplot2grid <class 'function'>
subplot_tool <class 'function'>
subplots <class 'function'>
subplots_adjust <class 'function'>
summer <class 'function'>
suptitle <class 'function'>
switch_backend <class 'function'>
sys <class 'module'>
table <class 'function'>
text <class 'function'>
thetagrids <class 'function'>
tick_params <class 'function'>
ticklabel_format <class 'function'>
tight_layout <class 'function'>
time <class 'module'>
title <class 'function'>
tricontour <class 'function'>
tricontourf <class 'function'>
tripcolor <class 'function'>
triplot <class 'function'>
twinx <class 'function'>
twiny <class 'function'>
uninstall_repl_displayhook <class 'function'>
violinplot <class 'function'>
viridis <class 'function'>
vlines <class 'function'>
waitforbuttonpress <class 'function'>
warn_deprecated <class 'function'>
winter <class 'function'>
xcorr <class 'function'>
xkcd <class 'function'>
xlabel <class 'function'>
xlim <class 'function'>
xscale <class 'function'>
xticks <class 'function'>
ylabel <class 'function'>
ylim <class 'function'>
yscale <class 'function'>
yticks <class 'function'>

…

tags: advanced & category: python