I want to create a class that behaves like collections.defaultdict, without having the usage code specify the factory. EG: instead of
class Config(collections.defaultdict):
pass
this:
Config = functools.partial(collections.defaultdict, list)
This almost works, but
isinstance(Config(), Config)
fails. I am betting this clue means there are more devious problems deeper in also. So is there a way to actually achieve this?
I also tried:
class Config(Object):
__init__ = functools.partial(collections.defaultdict, list)
5 Answers
I don't think there's a standard method to do it, but if you need it often, you can just put together your own small function:
import functools
import collections
def partialclass(cls, *args, **kwds):
class NewCls(cls):
__init__ = functools.partialmethod(cls.__init__, *args, **kwds)
return NewCls
if __name__ == '__main__':
Config = partialclass(collections.defaultdict, list)
assert isinstance(Config(), Config)
I had a similar problem but also required instances of my partially applied class to be pickle-able. I thought I would share what I ended up with.
I adapted fjarri's answer by peeking at Python's own collections.namedtuple. The below function creates a named subclass that can be pickled.
from functools import partialmethod
import sys
def partialclass(name, cls, *args, **kwds):
new_cls = type(name, (cls,), {
'__init__': partialmethod(cls.__init__, *args, **kwds)
})
# The following is copied nearly ad verbatim from `namedtuple's` source.
"""
# For pickling to work, the __module__ variable needs to be set to the frame
# where the named tuple is created. Bypass this step in enviroments where
# sys._getframe is not defined (Jython for example) or sys._getframe is not
# defined for arguments greater than 0 (IronPython).
"""
try:
new_cls.__module__ = sys._getframe(1).f_globals.get('__name__', '__main__')
except (AttributeError, ValueError):
pass
return new_cls
If you actually need working explicit type checks via isinstance, you can simply create a not too trivial subclass:
class Config(collections.defaultdict):
def __init__(self): # no arguments here
# call the defaultdict init with the list factory
super(Config, self).__init__(list)
You'll have no-argument construction with the list factory and
isinstance(Config(), Config)
will work as well.
At least in Python 3.8.5 it just works with functools.partial:
import functools
class Test:
def __init__(self, foo):
self.foo = foo
PartialClass = functools.partial(Test, 1)
instance = PartialClass()
instance.foo
Could use *args and **kwargs:
class Foo:
def __init__(self, a, b):
self.a = a
self.b = b
def printy(self):
print("a:", self.a, ", b:", self.b)
class Bar(Foo):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
return super().__init__(*args, b=123, **kwargs)
if __name__=="__main__":
bar = Bar(1)
bar.printy() # Prints: "a: 1 , b: 123"
