Custom classes/objects

Copying

Deep copying

import copy
deep_copy = copy.deepcopy([[1,2,3], [4,5,6])

Shallow copying

list([[1,2,3], [4,5,6]])

namedtuple

namedtuple API

• always starts with _ prefix to avoid conflicts with arbitrarily user defined fields
• should still use them!

Converted namedtuple to dict

my_car._asdict()
OrderedDict([('color', 'red'), ('mileage', 3812.4)])

json.dumps(my_car._asdict())
'{"color": "red", "mileage": 3812.4}'

Extending a namedtuple with _fields

Car = namedtuple('Car', 'color mileage')
ElectricCar = namedtuple('ElectricCar', Car._fields + ('charge',))

"Edit" a namedtuple

• shallow copies and replaces some fields

my_car._replace(color='blue')
Car(color='blue', mileage=3812.4)

Created a namedtuple from an iterable

Car._make(['red', 999])
Car(color='red', mileage=999)

When to use namedtuples

• only if it makes the code cleaner
• alternatives
  • dataclass (if you don't want immutability)
  • dict or list

NamedTuple

Python 3.6+

from typing import NamedTuple
class Car(NamedTuple):
    color: str
    mileage: float
    automatic: bool

car1 = Car('red', 3812.4, True)
>>> car1.mileage
3812.4
# Fields are immutable:
>>> car1.mileage = 12
AttributeError: "can't set attribute"
>>> car1.windshield = 'broken'
AttributeError:
"'Car' object has no attribute 'windshield'"
# Type annotations are not enforced without
# a separate type checking tool like mypy:
>>> Car('red', 'NOT_A_FLOAT', 99)
Car(color='red', mileage='NOT_A_FLOAT', automatic=99)

read-only attribute

• use a @property

class Square:
    def __init__(self, length):
        self._length = length
    @property
    def length(self):
        return self._length

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Last update: 2023-04-24