What is the idiomatic Python equivalent of this C/C++ code?
void foo()
{
static int counter = 0;
counter++;
printf("counter is %d\n", counter);
}
specifically, how does one implement the static member at the function level, as opposed to the class level? And does placing the function into a class change anything?
A bit reversed, but this should work:
def foo():
foo.counter += 1
print "Counter is %d" % foo.counter
foo.counter = 0
If you want the counter initialization code at the top instead of the bottom, you can create a decorator:
def static_vars(**kwargs):
def decorate(func):
for k in kwargs:
setattr(func, k, kwargs[k])
return func
return decorate
Then use the code like this:
@static_vars(counter=0)
def foo():
foo.counter += 1
print "Counter is %d" % foo.counter
It'll still require you to use the foo. prefix, unfortunately.
(Credit: @ony)
You can add attributes to a function, and use it as a static variable.
def myfunc():
myfunc.counter += 1
print myfunc.counter
# attribute must be initialized
myfunc.counter = 0
Alternatively, if you don't want to setup the variable outside the function, you can use hasattr() to avoid an AttributeError exception:
def myfunc():
if not hasattr(myfunc, "counter"):
myfunc.counter = 0 # it doesn't exist yet, so initialize it
myfunc.counter += 1
Anyway static variables are rather rare, and you should find a better place for this variable, most likely inside a class.
Other answers have demonstrated the way you should do this. Here's a way you shouldn't:
>>> def foo(counter=[0]):
... counter[0] += 1
... print("Counter is %i." % counter[0]);
...
>>> foo()
Counter is 1.
>>> foo()
Counter is 2.
>>>
Default values are initialized only when the function is first evaluated, not each time it is executed, so you can use a list or any other mutable object to store static values.
Python doesn't have static variables but you can fake it by defining a callable class object and then using it as a function. Also see this answer.
class Foo(object):
# Class variable, shared by all instances of this class
counter = 0
def __call__(self):
Foo.counter += 1
print Foo.counter
# Create an object instance of class "Foo," called "foo"
foo = Foo()
# Make calls to the "__call__" method, via the object's name itself
foo() #prints 1
foo() #prints 2
foo() #prints 3
Note that __call__ makes an instance of a class (object) callable by its own name. That's why calling foo() above calls the class' __call__ method. From the documentation:
Instances of arbitrary classes can be made callable by defining a
__call__()method in their class.
Use a generator function to generate an iterator.
def foo_gen():
n = 0
while True:
n+=1
yield n
Then use it like
foo = foo_gen().next
for i in range(0,10):
print foo()
If you want an upper limit:
def foo_gen(limit=100000):
n = 0
while n < limit:
n+=1
yield n
If the iterator terminates (like the example above), you can also loop over it directly, like
for i in foo_gen(20):
print i
Of course, in these simple cases it's better to use xrange :)
Here is the documentation on the yield statement.
_counter = 0 def foo(): global _counter _counter += 1 print 'counter is', _counter
Python customarily uses underscores to indicate private variables. The only reason in C to declare the static variable inside the function is to hide it outside the function, which is not really idiomatic Python.
After trying several approaches I ended up using an improved version of @warvariuc's answer:
import types
def func(_static=types.SimpleNamespace(counter=0)):
_static.counter += 1
print(_static.counter)
A global declaration provides this functionality. In the example below (python 3.5 or greater to use the "f"), the counter variable is defined outside of the function. Defining it as global in the function signifies that the "global" version outside of the function should be made available to the function. So each time the function runs, it modifies the value outside the function, preserving it beyond the function.
counter = 0
def foo():
global counter
counter += 1
print("counter is {}".format(counter))
foo() #output: "counter is 1"
foo() #output: "counter is 2"
foo() #output: "counter is 3"
Instead of creating a function having a static local variable, you can always create what is called a "function object" and give it a standard (non-static) member variable.
Since you gave an example written C++, I will first explain what a "function object" is in C++. A "function object" is simply any class with an overloaded operator(). Instances of the class will behave like functions. For example, you can write int x = square(5); even if square is an object (with overloaded operator()) and not technically not a "function." You can give a function-object any of the features that you could give a class object.
# C++ function object
class Foo_class {
private:
int counter;
public:
Foo_class() {
counter = 0;
}
void operator() () {
counter++;
printf("counter is %d\n", counter);
}
};
Foo_class foo;
In Python, we can also overload operator() except that the method is instead named __call__:
Here is a class definition:
class Foo_class:
def __init__(self): # __init__ is similair to a C++ class constructor
self.counter = 0
# self.counter is like a static member
# variable of a function named "foo"
def __call__(self): # overload operator()
self.counter += 1
print("counter is %d" % self.counter);
foo = Foo_class() # call the constructor
Here is an example of the class being used:
from foo import foo
for i in range(0, 5):
foo() # function call
The output printed to the console is:
counter is 1
counter is 2
counter is 3
counter is 4
counter is 5
If you want your function to take input arguments, you can add those to __call__ as well:
# FILE: foo.py - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
class Foo_class:
def __init__(self):
self.counter = 0
def __call__(self, x, y, z): # overload operator()
self.counter += 1
print("counter is %d" % self.counter);
print("x, y, z, are %d, %d, %d" % (x, y, z));
foo = Foo_class() # call the constructor
# FILE: main.py - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
from foo import foo
for i in range(0, 5):
foo(7, 8, 9) # function call
# Console Output - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
counter is 1
x, y, z, are 7, 8, 9
counter is 2
x, y, z, are 7, 8, 9
counter is 3
x, y, z, are 7, 8, 9
counter is 4
x, y, z, are 7, 8, 9
counter is 5
x, y, z, are 7, 8, 9
The following decorator can be used create static function variables. It replaces the declared function with the return from itself. This implies that the decorated function must return a function.
def static_inner_self(func):
return func()
Then use the decorator on a function that returns another function with a captured variable:
@static_inner_self
def foo():
counter = 0
def foo():
nonlocal counter
counter += 1
print(f"counter is {counter}")
return foo
nonlocal is required, otherwise Python thinks that the counter variable is a local variable instead of a captured variable. Python behaves like that because of the variable assignment counter += 1. Any assignment in a function makes Python think that the variable is local.
If you are not assigning to the variable in the inner function, then you can ignore the nonlocal statement, for example, in this function I use to indent lines of a string, in which Python can infer that the variable is nonlocal:
@static_inner_self
def indent_lines():
import re
re_start_line = re.compile(r'^', flags=re.MULTILINE)
def indent_lines(text, indent=2):
return re_start_line.sub(" "*indent, text)
return indent_lines
P.S. There is a deleted answer that proposed the same. I don't know why the author deleted it. https://stackoverflow.com/a/23366737/195417
Building on Daniel's answer (additions):
class Foo(object):
counter = 0
def __call__(self, inc_value=0):
Foo.counter += inc_value
return Foo.counter
foo = Foo()
def use_foo(x,y):
if(x==5):
foo(2)
elif(y==7):
foo(3)
if(foo() == 10):
print("yello")
use_foo(5,1)
use_foo(5,1)
use_foo(1,7)
use_foo(1,7)
use_foo(1,1)
The reason why I wanted to add this part is , static variables are used not only for incrementing by some value, but also check if the static var is equal to some value, as a real life example.
The static variable is still protected and used only within the scope of the function use_foo()
In this example, call to foo() functions exactly as(with respect to the corresponding c++ equivalent) :
stat_c +=9; // in c++
foo(9) #python equiv
if(stat_c==10){ //do something} // c++
if(foo() == 10): # python equiv
#add code here # python equiv
Output :
yello
yello
if class Foo is defined restrictively as a singleton class, that would be ideal. This would make it more pythonic.
I write a simple function to use static variables:
def Static():
### get the func object by which Static() is called.
from inspect import currentframe, getframeinfo
caller = currentframe().f_back
func_name = getframeinfo(caller)[2]
# print(func_name)
caller = caller.f_back
func = caller.f_locals.get(
func_name, caller.f_globals.get(
func_name
)
)
class StaticVars:
def has(self, varName):
return hasattr(self, varName)
def declare(self, varName, value):
if not self.has(varName):
setattr(self, varName, value)
if hasattr(func, "staticVars"):
return func.staticVars
else:
# add an attribute to func
func.staticVars = StaticVars()
return func.staticVars
How to use:
def myfunc(arg):
if Static().has('test1'):
Static().test += 1
else:
Static().test = 1
print(Static().test)
# declare() only takes effect in the first time for each static variable.
Static().declare('test2', 1)
print(Static().test2)
Static().test2 += 1