Unexpected behavior using contextmanager on a class method

[Thomas Draper]

I want to use with..as in a "reversible circuit generator". However, it seems that @contextmanager changes the expected nature of the class. I tried to distill the problem down to a simple example.

import contextlib

class SymList:
def __init__(self, L=[]):
self.L = L

@contextlib.contextmanager
def SymAdd(self, a):
self.L.append(a)
yield
self.L.append(a)

SL = SymList()
with SL.SymAdd(3):
SL.L.append(5)
print(SL.L) # Expect and see [3, 5, 3]
SL2 = SymList() # New object. Should have default values.
print(SL2.L) # Expect [] and see [3, 5, 3]

Why is the data member SL2.L referring to the data member SL.L? Has the @contextmanager somehow made all instantions of the class related?

 

[Peter Otten]

I want to use with..as in a "reversible circuit generator". However, it
seems that @contextmanager changes the expected nature of the class. I
tried to distill the problem down to a simple example.

import contextlib

class SymList:

The problem you experience has nothing to do with context managers, you have
a mutable default argument in your __init__().

def __init__(self, L=[]):

L is initialised with an empty list exactly once, when the method is
defined; any changes you make to the list will be seen by all instances that
use the default. The fix is

def __init__(self, L=None):
if L is None:
L = []

self.L = L

@contextlib.contextmanager
def SymAdd(self, a):
self.L.append(a)
yield
self.L.append(a)

SL = SymList()
with SL.SymAdd(3):
SL.L.append(5)
print(SL.L) # Expect and see [3, 5, 3]
SL2 = SymList() # New object. Should have default values.
print(SL2.L) # Expect [] and see [3, 5, 3]

Why is the data member SL2.L referring to the data member SL.L? Has the
@contextmanager somehow made all instantions of the class related?

 

[Steven D'Aprano]

I want to use with..as in a "reversible circuit generator". However, it
seems that @contextmanager changes the expected nature of the class. I
tried to distill the problem down to a simple example.

Nothing to do with contextmanager. That's a red-herring. Your error is
here:

class SymList:
def __init__(self, L=[]):
self.L = L

The default value for L is only set *once*, when the function is defined,
NOT every time the function is called. Later on, in the SymAdd method you
modify that list in place. So naturally later instances see the changes,
because you have changed the default list.

You can see this "early binding" of the default value in action with this
simple example:


import time
def test(x=time.ctime()): # Default values are set *once*, not each time.
print(x)

test()
=> always prints Wed Aug 8 03:40:32 2012

(or whatever time the function is defined).

In this example, the default value is a string, and cannot be changed;
but in your code it is a list, and can be modified in place. Either way,
the result is the same: you get the same object used as the default, each
and every time.


In your case, you can fix this problem and get the effect of "late
binding" like this:

class SymList:
def __init__(self, L=None):
if L is None: L = []
self.L = L


Now each time the method body runs, you get a different empty list.