Fool Python class with imaginary members (serious guru stuff inside)

J

Jure Erznožnik

I'm trying to create a class that would lie to the user that a member is insome cases a simple variable and in other cases a class. The nature of themember would depend on call syntax like so:
1. x = obj.member #x becomes the "simple" value contained in member
2. x = obj.member.another_member #x becomes the "simple" value contained in first member's another_member.

So the first method "detects" that we only need a simple value and returns that. The second method "sees" that we need "member" as a class and returnsthat. Note that "simple type" could mean anything, from int to bitmap image.

I have determined that this is possible if I sacrifice the final member reference to the __call__ override using function-call syntax: 1. x = obj.member(). The call syntax returns the simple value and the other returns the class. It is also possible if I override the __xxxitem__ methods to simulate a dictionary.

However, I would like to use the "true member" access syntax if possible.

So, is it possible?
 
T

Terry Reedy

I'm trying to create a class that would lie to the user that a member is in some cases a simple variable and in other cases a class. The nature of the member would depend on call syntax like so:
1. x = obj.member #x becomes the "simple" value contained in member
2. x = obj.member.another_member #x becomes the "simple" value contained in first member's another_member.

x.y.z is parsed and executed as (x.y).z, so you are asking if the
attribute-getter can know what will be done with the object it returns.
Assuming CPython, you would have to write something that searches the
Python code before compilation, the ast during compilation, or the
bytecode after compilation.

Much easier would be to define a union class that is a simple type with
attributes and return that in the first lookup.

class AttrInt(int):
def __getattr__(self, name): return 'attribute'

y = AttrInt(3)
print(y, y.a)
###
3 attribute

If x.y returns an AttrInt, it will act like an int for most purposes,
while x.y.z will return whatever AttrInt.__getattr__ does and the
temporary AttrInt y disappears.
 
S

Steven D'Aprano

I'm trying to create a class that would lie to the user that a member is
in some cases a simple variable and in other cases a class. The nature
of the member would depend on call syntax like so:
1. x = obj.member #x becomes the "simple" value contained in member
2. x = obj.member.another_member #x becomes the "simple" value
contained in first member's another_member.

Why do you hate your users so much that you want to cause them enormous
difficulty with perfectly reasonable code like this?

tmp = obj.member
x = tmp.another_member

So the first method "detects" that we only need a simple value and
returns that.

Fortunately that is impossible without nasty bytecode or AST hacks. Thank
the stars that Python doesn't allow anything as badly designed as this!
 

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