What refactoring tools do you use for Python?

Thomas_Vander_Stichele_2900 0
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I have a bunch of classes I want to rename. Some of them have names that are small and that name is reused in other class names, where I don't want that name changed. Most of this lives in Python code, but we also have some XML code that references class names.

Simple search and replace only gets me so far. In my case, I want to rename AdminAction to AdminActionPlug and AdminActionLogger to AdminActionLoggerPlug, so the first one's search-and-replace would also hit the second, wrongly.

Does anyone have experience with Python refactoring tools ? Bonus points if they can fix class names in the XML documents too.

refactoring python
7 Answers

In the meantime, I've tried it two tools that have some sort of integration with vim.

The first is Rope, a python refactoring library that comes with a Vim (and emacs) plug-in. I tried it for a few renames, and that definitely worked as expected. It allowed me to preview the refactoring as a diff, which is nice. It is a bit text-driven, but that's alright for me, just takes longer to learn.

The second is Bicycle Repair Man which I guess wins points on name. Also plugs into vim and emacs. Haven't played much with it yet, but I remember trying it a long time ago.

Haven't played with both enough yet, or tried more types of refactoring, but I will do some more hacking with them.

Thomas_Vander_Stichele_29000

WingIDE 4.0 (WingIDE is my python IDE of choice) will support a few refactorings, but I just tried out the latest beta, beta6, and... there's still work to be done. Retract Method works nicely, but Rename Symbol does not.

Update: The 4.0 release has fixed all of the refactoring tools. They work great now.

user_5663350

I would take a look at Bowler (https://pybowler.io).

It's better suited for use directly from the command-line than rope and encourages scripting (one-off scripts).

user_1186080
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