How does python handle generic/template type scenarios? Say I want to create an external file "BinaryTree.py" and have it handle binary trees, but for any data type.
So I could pass it the type of a custom object and have a binary tree of that object. How is this done in python?
The other answers are totally fine:
However, if you still want a typed variant, there is a built-in solution since Python 3.5.
A full list of available type annotations is available in the Python documentation.
Generic classes:
from typing import TypeVar, Generic, List
T = TypeVar('T')
class Stack(Generic[T]):
def __init__(self) -> None:
# Create an empty list with items of type T
self.items: List[T] = []
def push(self, item: T) -> None:
self.items.append(item)
def pop(self) -> T:
return self.items.pop()
def empty(self) -> bool:
return not self.items
# Construct an empty Stack[int] instance
stack = Stack[int]()
stack.push(2)
stack.pop()
stack.push('x') # Type error
Generic functions:
from typing import TypeVar, Sequence
T = TypeVar('T') # Declare type variable
def first(seq: Sequence[T]) -> T:
return seq[0]
def last(seq: Sequence[T]) -> T:
return seq[-1]
n = first([1, 2, 3]) # n has type int.
Static type checking:
You must use a static type checker such as mypy or Pyre (developed by Meta/FB) to analyze your source code.
Install mypy:
python3 -m pip install mypy
Analyze your source code, for example a certain file:
mypy foo.py
or directory:
mypy some_directory
mypy will detect and print type errors. A concrete output for the Stack example provided above:
foo.py:23: error: Argument 1 to "push" of "Stack" has incompatible type "str"; expected "int"
References: mypy documentation about generics and running mypy
Here's a variant of this answer that uses metaclasses to avoid the messy syntax, and use the typing-style List[int] syntax:
class template(type):
def __new__(metacls, f):
cls = type.__new__(metacls, f.__name__, (), {
'_f': f,
'__qualname__': f.__qualname__,
'__module__': f.__module__,
'__doc__': f.__doc__
})
cls.__instances = {}
return cls
def __init__(cls, f): # only needed in 3.5 and below
pass
def __getitem__(cls, item):
if not isinstance(item, tuple):
item = (item,)
try:
return cls.__instances[item]
except KeyError:
cls.__instances[item] = c = cls._f(*item)
item_repr = '[' + ', '.join(repr(i) for i in item) + ']'
c.__name__ = cls.__name__ + item_repr
c.__qualname__ = cls.__qualname__ + item_repr
c.__template__ = cls
return c
def __subclasscheck__(cls, subclass):
for c in subclass.mro():
if getattr(c, '__template__', None) == cls:
return True
return False
def __instancecheck__(cls, instance):
return cls.__subclasscheck__(type(instance))
def __repr__(cls):
import inspect
return '<template {!r}>'.format('{}.{}[{}]'.format(
cls.__module__, cls.__qualname__, str(inspect.signature(cls._f))[1:-1]
))
With this new metaclass, we can rewrite the example in the answer I link to as:
@template
def List(member_type):
class List(list):
def append(self, member):
if not isinstance(member, member_type):
raise TypeError('Attempted to append a "{0}" to a "{1}" which only takes a "{2}"'.format(
type(member).__name__,
type(self).__name__,
member_type.__name__
))
list.append(self, member)
return List
l = List[int]()
l.append(1) # ok
l.append("one") # error
This approach has some nice benefits
print(List) # <template '__main__.List[member_type]'>
print(List[int]) # <class '__main__.List[<class 'int'>, 10]'>
assert List[int] is List[int]
assert issubclass(List[int], List) # True
If you using Python 2 or want to rewrite java code. Their is not real solution for this. Here is what I get working in a night: https://github.com/FlorianSteenbuck/python-generics I still get no compiler so you currently using it like that:
class A(GenericObject):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
GenericObject.__init__(self, [
['b',extends,int],
['a',extends,str],
[0,extends,bool],
['T',extends,float]
], *args, **kwargs)
def _init(self, c, a, b):
print "success c="+str(c)+" a="+str(a)+" b="+str(b)
TODOs
<? extends List<Number>>)super support? support