I'm mainly a C# developer, but I'm currently working on a project in Python.
How can I represent the equivalent of an Enum in Python?
43 Answers
Before PEP 435, Python didn't have an equivalent but you could implement your own.
Myself, I like keeping it simple (I've seen some horribly complex examples on the net), something like this ...
class Animal:
DOG = 1
CAT = 2
x = Animal.DOG
In Python 3.4 (PEP 435), you can make Enum the base class. This gets you a little bit of extra functionality, described in the PEP. For example, enum members are distinct from integers, and they are composed of a name and a value.
from enum import Enum
class Animal(Enum):
DOG = 1
CAT = 2
print(Animal.DOG)
# <Animal.DOG: 1>
print(Animal.DOG.value)
# 1
print(Animal.DOG.name)
# "DOG"
If you don't want to type the values, use the following shortcut:
class Animal(Enum):
DOG, CAT = range(2)
Enum implementations can be converted to lists and are iterable. The order of its members is the declaration order and has nothing to do with their values. For example:
class Animal(Enum):
DOG = 1
CAT = 2
COW = 0
list(Animal)
# [<Animal.DOG: 1>, <Animal.CAT: 2>, <Animal.COW: 0>]
[animal.value for animal in Animal]
# [1, 2, 0]
Animal.CAT in Animal
# True
Here is one implementation:
class Enum(set):
def __getattr__(self, name):
if name in self:
return name
raise AttributeError
Here is its usage:
Animals = Enum(["DOG", "CAT", "HORSE"])
print(Animals.DOG)
If you need the numeric values, here's the quickest way:
dog, cat, rabbit = range(3)
In Python 3.x you can also add a starred placeholder at the end, which will soak up all the remaining values of the range in case you don't mind wasting memory and cannot count:
dog, cat, rabbit, horse, *_ = range(100)
The typesafe enum pattern which was used in Java pre-JDK 5 has a number of advantages. Much like in Alexandru's answer, you create a class and class level fields are the enum values; however, the enum values are instances of the class rather than small integers. This has the advantage that your enum values don't inadvertently compare equal to small integers, you can control how they're printed, add arbitrary methods if that's useful and make assertions using isinstance:
class Animal:
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
def __str__(self):
return self.name
def __repr__(self):
return "<Animal: %s>" % self
Animal.DOG = Animal("dog")
Animal.CAT = Animal("cat")
>>> x = Animal.DOG
>>> x
<Animal: dog>
>>> x == 1
False
A recent thread on python-dev pointed out there are a couple of enum libraries in the wild, including:
- flufl.enum
- lazr.enum
- ... and the imaginatively named enum
Python doesn't have a built-in equivalent to enum, and other answers have ideas for implementing your own (you may also be interested in the over the top version in the Python cookbook).
However, in situations where an enum would be called for in C, I usually end up just using simple strings: because of the way objects/attributes are implemented, (C)Python is optimized to work very fast with short strings anyway, so there wouldn't really be any performance benefit to using integers. To guard against typos / invalid values you can insert checks in selected places.
ANIMALS = ['cat', 'dog', 'python']
def take_for_a_walk(animal):
assert animal in ANIMALS
...
(One disadvantage compared to using a class is that you lose the benefit of autocomplete)
def M_add_class_attribs(attribs):
def foo(name, bases, dict_):
for v, k in attribs:
dict_[k] = v
return type(name, bases, dict_)
return foo
def enum(*names):
class Foo(object):
__metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs(enumerate(names))
def __setattr__(self, name, value): # this makes it read-only
raise NotImplementedError
return Foo()
Use it like this:
Animal = enum('DOG', 'CAT')
Animal.DOG # returns 0
Animal.CAT # returns 1
Animal.DOG = 2 # raises NotImplementedError
if you just want unique symbols and don't care about the values, replace this line:
__metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs(enumerate(names))
with this:
__metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs((object(), name) for name in names)
Hmmm... I suppose the closest thing to an enum would be a dictionary, defined either like this:
months = {
'January': 1,
'February': 2,
...
}
or
months = dict(
January=1,
February=2,
...
)
Then, you can use the symbolic name for the constants like this:
mymonth = months['January']
There are other options, like a list of tuples, or a tuple of tuples, but the dictionary is the only one that provides you with a "symbolic" (constant string) way to access the value.
Edit: I like Alexandru's answer too!
What I use:
class Enum(object):
def __init__(self, names, separator=None):
self.names = names.split(separator)
for value, name in enumerate(self.names):
setattr(self, name.upper(), value)
def tuples(self):
return tuple(enumerate(self.names))
How to use:
>>> state = Enum('draft published retracted')
>>> state.DRAFT
0
>>> state.RETRACTED
2
>>> state.FOO
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Enum' object has no attribute 'FOO'
>>> state.tuples()
((0, 'draft'), (1, 'published'), (2, 'retracted'))
So this gives you integer constants like state.PUBLISHED and the two-tuples to use as choices in Django models.
davidg recommends using dicts. I'd go one step further and use sets:
months = set('January', 'February', ..., 'December')
Now you can test whether a value matches one of the values in the set like this:
if m in months:
like dF, though, I usually just use string constants in place of enums.
The enum package from PyPI provides a robust implementation of enums. An earlier answer mentioned PEP 354; this was rejected but the proposal was implemented http://pypi.python.org/pypi/enum.
Usage is easy and elegant:
>>> from enum import Enum
>>> Colors = Enum('red', 'blue', 'green')
>>> shirt_color = Colors.green
>>> shirt_color = Colors[2]
>>> shirt_color > Colors.red
True
>>> shirt_color.index
2
>>> str(shirt_color)
'green'
Alexandru's suggestion of using class constants for enums works quite well.
I also like to add a dictionary for each set of constants to lookup a human-readable string representation.
This serves two purposes: a) it provides a simple way to pretty-print your enum and b) the dictionary logically groups the constants so that you can test for membership.
class Animal:
TYPE_DOG = 1
TYPE_CAT = 2
type2str = {
TYPE_DOG: "dog",
TYPE_CAT: "cat"
}
def __init__(self, type_):
assert type_ in self.type2str.keys()
self._type = type_
def __repr__(self):
return "<%s type=%s>" % (
self.__class__.__name__, self.type2str[self._type].upper())
It's funny, I just had a need for this the other day and I couldnt find an implementation worth using... so I wrote my own:
import functools
class EnumValue(object):
def __init__(self,name,value,type):
self.__value=value
self.__name=name
self.Type=type
def __str__(self):
return self.__name
def __repr__(self):#2.6 only... so change to what ever you need...
return '{cls}({0!r},{1!r},{2})'.format(self.__name,self.__value,self.Type.__name__,cls=type(self).__name__)
def __hash__(self):
return hash(self.__value)
def __nonzero__(self):
return bool(self.__value)
def __cmp__(self,other):
if isinstance(other,EnumValue):
return cmp(self.__value,other.__value)
else:
return cmp(self.__value,other)#hopefully their the same type... but who cares?
def __or__(self,other):
if other is None:
return self
elif type(self) is not type(other):
raise TypeError()
return EnumValue('{0.Name} | {1.Name}'.format(self,other),self.Value|other.Value,self.Type)
def __and__(self,other):
if other is None:
return self
elif type(self) is not type(other):
raise TypeError()
return EnumValue('{0.Name} & {1.Name}'.format(self,other),self.Value&other.Value,self.Type)
def __contains__(self,other):
if self.Value==other.Value:
return True
return bool(self&other)
def __invert__(self):
enumerables=self.Type.__enumerables__
return functools.reduce(EnumValue.__or__,(enum for enum in enumerables.itervalues() if enum not in self))
@property
def Name(self):
return self.__name
@property
def Value(self):
return self.__value
class EnumMeta(type):
@staticmethod
def __addToReverseLookup(rev,value,newKeys,nextIter,force=True):
if value in rev:
forced,items=rev.get(value,(force,()) )
if forced and force: #value was forced, so just append
rev[value]=(True,items+newKeys)
elif not forced:#move it to a new spot
next=nextIter.next()
EnumMeta.__addToReverseLookup(rev,next,items,nextIter,False)
rev[value]=(force,newKeys)
else: #not forcing this value
next = nextIter.next()
EnumMeta.__addToReverseLookup(rev,next,newKeys,nextIter,False)
rev[value]=(force,newKeys)
else:#set it and forget it
rev[value]=(force,newKeys)
return value
def __init__(cls,name,bases,atts):
classVars=vars(cls)
enums = classVars.get('__enumerables__',None)
nextIter = getattr(cls,'__nextitr__',itertools.count)()
reverseLookup={}
values={}
if enums is not None:
#build reverse lookup
for item in enums:
if isinstance(item,(tuple,list)):
items=list(item)
value=items.pop()
EnumMeta.__addToReverseLookup(reverseLookup,value,tuple(map(str,items)),nextIter)
else:
value=nextIter.next()
value=EnumMeta.__addToReverseLookup(reverseLookup,value,(str(item),),nextIter,False)#add it to the reverse lookup, but don't force it to that value
#build values and clean up reverse lookup
for value,fkeys in reverseLookup.iteritems():
f,keys=fkeys
for key in keys:
enum=EnumValue(key,value,cls)
setattr(cls,key,enum)
values[key]=enum
reverseLookup[value]=tuple(val for val in values.itervalues() if val.Value == value)
setattr(cls,'__reverseLookup__',reverseLookup)
setattr(cls,'__enumerables__',values)
setattr(cls,'_Max',max([key for key in reverseLookup] or [0]))
return super(EnumMeta,cls).__init__(name,bases,atts)
def __iter__(cls):
for enum in cls.__enumerables__.itervalues():
yield enum
def GetEnumByName(cls,name):
return cls.__enumerables__.get(name,None)
def GetEnumByValue(cls,value):
return cls.__reverseLookup__.get(value,(None,))[0]
class Enum(object):
__metaclass__=EnumMeta
__enumerables__=None
class FlagEnum(Enum):
@staticmethod
def __nextitr__():
yield 0
for val in itertools.count():
yield 2**val
def enum(name,*args):
return EnumMeta(name,(Enum,),dict(__enumerables__=args))
Take it or leave it, it did what I needed it to do :)
Use it like:
class Air(FlagEnum):
__enumerables__=('None','Oxygen','Nitrogen','Hydrogen')
class Mammals(Enum):
__enumerables__=('Bat','Whale',('Dog','Puppy',1),'Cat')
Bool = enum('Bool','Yes',('No',0))
Following the Java like enum implementation proposed by Aaron Maenpaa, I came out with the following. The idea was to make it generic and parseable.
class Enum:
#'''
#Java like implementation for enums.
#
#Usage:
#class Tool(Enum): name = 'Tool'
#Tool.DRILL = Tool.register('drill')
#Tool.HAMMER = Tool.register('hammer')
#Tool.WRENCH = Tool.register('wrench')
#'''
name = 'Enum' # Enum name
_reg = dict([]) # Enum registered values
@classmethod
def register(cls, value):
#'''
#Registers a new value in this enum.
#
#@param value: New enum value.
#
#@return: New value wrapper instance.
#'''
inst = cls(value)
cls._reg[value] = inst
return inst
@classmethod
def parse(cls, value):
#'''
#Parses a value, returning the enum instance.
#
#@param value: Enum value.
#
#@return: Value corresp instance.
#'''
return cls._reg.get(value)
def __init__(self, value):
#'''
#Constructor (only for internal use).
#'''
self.value = value
def __str__(self):
#'''
#str() overload.
#'''
return self.value
def __repr__(self):
#'''
#repr() overload.
#'''
return "<" + self.name + ": " + self.value + ">"
I use a metaclass to implement an enumeration (in my thought, it is a const). Here is the code:
class ConstMeta(type):
'''
Metaclass for some class that store constants
'''
def __init__(cls, name, bases, dct):
'''
init class instance
'''
def static_attrs():
'''
@rtype: (static_attrs, static_val_set)
@return: Static attributes in dict format and static value set
'''
import types
attrs = {}
val_set = set()
#Maybe more
filter_names = set(['__doc__', '__init__', '__metaclass__', '__module__', '__main__'])
for key, value in dct.iteritems():
if type(value) != types.FunctionType and key not in filter_names:
if len(value) != 2:
raise NotImplementedError('not support for values that is not 2 elements!')
#Check value[0] duplication.
if value[0] not in val_set:
val_set.add(value[0])
else:
raise KeyError("%s 's key: %s is duplicated!" % (dict([(key, value)]), value[0]))
attrs[key] = value
return attrs, val_set
attrs, val_set = static_attrs()
#Set STATIC_ATTRS to class instance so that can reuse
setattr(cls, 'STATIC_ATTRS', attrs)
setattr(cls, 'static_val_set', val_set)
super(ConstMeta, cls).__init__(name, bases, dct)
def __getattribute__(cls, name):
'''
Rewrite the special function so as to get correct attribute value
'''
static_attrs = object.__getattribute__(cls, 'STATIC_ATTRS')
if name in static_attrs:
return static_attrs[name][0]
return object.__getattribute__(cls, name)
def static_values(cls):
'''
Put values in static attribute into a list, use the function to validate value.
@return: Set of values
'''
return cls.static_val_set
def __getitem__(cls, key):
'''
Rewrite to make syntax SomeConstClass[key] works, and return desc string of related static value.
@return: Desc string of related static value
'''
for k, v in cls.STATIC_ATTRS.iteritems():
if v[0] == key:
return v[1]
raise KeyError('Key: %s does not exists in %s !' % (str(key), repr(cls)))
class Const(object):
'''
Base class for constant class.
@usage:
Definition: (must inherit from Const class!
>>> class SomeConst(Const):
>>> STATUS_NAME_1 = (1, 'desc for the status1')
>>> STATUS_NAME_2 = (2, 'desc for the status2')
Invoke(base upper SomeConst class):
1) SomeConst.STATUS_NAME_1 returns 1
2) SomeConst[1] returns 'desc for the status1'
3) SomeConst.STATIC_ATTRS returns {'STATUS_NAME_1': (1, 'desc for the status1'), 'STATUS_NAME_2': (2, 'desc for the status2')}
4) SomeConst.static_values() returns set([1, 2])
Attention:
SomeCosnt's value 1, 2 can not be duplicated!
If WrongConst is like this, it will raise KeyError:
class WrongConst(Const):
STATUS_NAME_1 = (1, 'desc for the status1')
STATUS_NAME_2 = (1, 'desc for the status2')
'''
__metaclass__ = ConstMeta
##################################################################
#Const Base Class ends
##################################################################
def main():
class STATUS(Const):
ERROR = (-3, '??')
OK = (0, '??')
print STATUS.ERROR
print STATUS.static_values()
print STATUS.STATIC_ATTRS
#Usage sample:
user_input = 1
#Validate input:
print user_input in STATUS.static_values()
#Template render like:
print '<select>'
for key, value in STATUS.STATIC_ATTRS.items():
print '<option value="%s">%s</option>' % (value[0], value[1])
print '</select>'
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
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