Default attribute values pattern

[George Sakkis]

A situation that often comes up is having to initialize several
instance attributes that accept a default value. For a single class,
passing the default values in __init__ is fine:

class Base(object):
def __init__(self, x=0, y=None):
self.x = x
self.y = y

For inherited classes that need to override __init__ while keeping a
compatible interface though, the default values have to be repeated:

class Derived(Base):
def __init__(self, x=0, y=None, z=''):
super(Derived,self).__init__(self,x,y)
self.z = ''

For just two attributes and two classes that's maybe not too bad but
for many attributes and/or derived classes that may span multiple
modules, that doesn't seem to scale from a maintenance point of view,
especially if the defaults change over time.

A pattern I've been using lately instead is store the defaults in
class attributes and let __init__ accept keyword arguments:

class Base(object):

x = 0
y = None

def __init__(self, **kwds):
setattrs(self, kwds)

where setattrs is:

def setattrs(self, attrvals, strict=True):
if strict:
# raise AttributeError if some attr doesn't exist already
for attr in attrvals.iterkeys():
getattr(self,attr)
for attr,val in attrvals.iteritems():
setattr(self, attr, val)

This way, only the new and overriden default attributes have to
repeated in derived classes:

class Derived(Base):

x = 1
z = ''

def __init__(self, **kwds):
super(Derived,self).__init__(**kwds)
print 'In Derived.__init__'
Is this a good way of doing it ? Is there a better pattern ?

George

[David Tweet]

Hello,

Seems to me that setattrs sort of assumes that you want to have all your
initialization arguments set as attributes of the same name. I would think
you'd sometimes want to be able to process the extra arguments inside of each
__init__, assign them to attributes with different names, etc.

My approach would be to treat each __init__ as a wrapping function, grabbing
the items it needs out of the keyword dictionary and then calling the next
__init__. Curious to hear other approaches though:
def Grab(argdict, key, default):
"""Like argdict.get(key, default), but also deletes key from argdict."""
if key in argdict:
retval = argdict["key"]
del(argdict[key])
else:
retval = default
return retval
class Base(object):
def __init__(self, x=0, y=None):
print "in Base init"
self.x = x
self.y = y
class Derived1(Base):
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
print "in Derived1 init"
self.z = Grab(kwargs, "z", None)
super(Derived1, self).__init__(**kwargs)
class Derived2(Derived1):
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
print "in Derived2 init"
self.a = Grab(kwargs, "a", 0)
self.b = Grab(kwargs, "b", False)
super(Derived2, self).__init__(**kwargs)
print self.__dict__
newthing = Derived2(x=234, y="blah", a=55555)
On Jan 19, 2008 10:14 AM, George Sakkis <ge***********@gmail.comwrote:

A situation that often comes up is having to initialize several
instance attributes that accept a default value. For a single class,
passing the default values in __init__ is fine:

class Base(object):
def __init__(self, x=0, y=None):
self.x = x
self.y = y

For inherited classes that need to override __init__ while keeping a
compatible interface though, the default values have to be repeated:

class Derived(Base):
def __init__(self, x=0, y=None, z=''):
super(Derived,self).__init__(self,x,y)
self.z = ''

For just two attributes and two classes that's maybe not too bad but
for many attributes and/or derived classes that may span multiple
modules, that doesn't seem to scale from a maintenance point of view,
especially if the defaults change over time.

A pattern I've been using lately instead is store the defaults in
class attributes and let __init__ accept keyword arguments:

class Base(object):

x = 0
y = None

def __init__(self, **kwds):
setattrs(self, kwds)

where setattrs is:

def setattrs(self, attrvals, strict=True):
if strict:
# raise AttributeError if some attr doesn't exist already
for attr in attrvals.iterkeys():
getattr(self,attr)
for attr,val in attrvals.iteritems():
setattr(self, attr, val)

This way, only the new and overriden default attributes have to
repeated in derived classes:

class Derived(Base):

x = 1
z = ''

def __init__(self, **kwds):
super(Derived,self).__init__(**kwds)
print 'In Derived.__init__'
Is this a good way of doing it ? Is there a better pattern ?

George
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

--
-David

[Arnaud Delobelle]

On Jan 19, 11:02*pm, "David Tweet" <[e-mail]:

def Grab(argdict, key, default):
* """Like argdict.get(key, default), but also deletes key from argdict."""
* if key in argdict:
* * retval = argdict["key"]
* * del(argdict[key])
* else:
* * retval = default
* return retval

Dictionaries already have a method for this. It's called pop. It's a
good idea to have a look at methods of builtin types before
reimplementing the wheel!

Grab(argdict, key, default) is argdict.pop(key, default)

--
Arnaud

[David Tweet]

Ah! nice, thanks, knew I was probably missing something.

On Jan 19, 2008 5:01 PM, Arnaud Delobelle <ar*****@googlemail.comwrote:

On Jan 19, 11:02pm, "David Tweet" <[e-mail]:

def Grab(argdict, key, default):
"""Like argdict.get(key, default), but also deletes key from argdict."""
if key in argdict:
retval = argdict["key"]
del(argdict[key])
else:
retval = default
return retval

Dictionaries already have a method for this. It's called pop. It's a
good idea to have a look at methods of builtin types before
reimplementing the wheel!

Grab(argdict, key, default) is argdict.pop(key, default)

--
Arnaud
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

--
-David

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

David Tweet a écrit :
(<ot>please, don't top-post</ot>)

>
def Grab(argdict, key, default):

cf pep08 for naming conventions...

"""Like argdict.get(key, default), but also deletes key from argdict."""
if key in argdict:
retval = argdict["key"]
del(argdict[key])
else:
retval = default
return retval

def grab(kw, key, default=None):
try:
return kw.pop(key)
except KeyError:
return default

(snip)

[cokofreedom]

Grab(argdict, key, default) is argdict.pop(key, default)

"pop() raises a KeyError when no default value is given and the key is
not found."

def grab(kw, key, default=None):
try:
return kw.pop(key)
except KeyError:
return default

So Bruno's technique seems to me to be the correct one as it catches
the KeyError.

[Arnaud Delobelle]

On Jan 21, 10:09*am, [e-mail] wrote:

Grab(argdict, key, default) is argdict.pop(key, default)

"pop() raises a KeyError when no default value is given and the key is
not found."

And it doesn't if a default is provided, which is always the case in
the uses of Grab(...), so it seems the right tool for the job.

def grab(kw, key, default=None):
* *try:
* * *return kw.pop(key)
* *except KeyError:
* * *return default

So Bruno's technique seems to me to be the correct one as it catches
the KeyError.

If you really really want to write a grab function (IMHO pop is good
enough):

def grab(kw, key, default=None):
return kw.pop(key, default)

--
Arnaud

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

co*********@gmail.com a écrit :

>Grab(argdict, key, default) is argdict.pop(key, default)

"pop() raises a KeyError when no default value is given and the key is
not found."

Then use it with a default value !-)

>def grab(kw, key, default=None):
try:
return kw.pop(key)
except KeyError:
return default

So Bruno's technique seems to me to be the correct one as it catches
the KeyError.

Note that I cancelled the message (too bad, doesn't work everywhere). I
totally agree with Arnaud on this, and should sometimes re-read the doc
for stuff I use so often I think I know them.