Adding a method to an instance

[Jay O'Connor]

On Sat, 03 Mar 2001 05:12:06 GMT, Bryan Mongeau <bryan at eevolved.com>
wrote:

>Quick one for you guys:
>
>I would like to add a method to an instantiated class. 
>
>class foo:
>  def __init__(self):
>    self.bar = 123
>
>f = foo()
>
>Now to add a method to the instance f of class foo:
>
>def newMethod(self):
>  print self.bar
>
>f.__class__.newMethod = newMethod
>
>This works, except that it modifies the definition of class foo!
>
>>>> dir(foo)
>['__doc__', '__init__', '__module__']
>>>> f.__class__.newMethod = newMethod
>>>> f.newMethod()
>123
>>>> dir(foo)
>['__doc__', '__init__', '__module__', 'newMethod']
>
>Is there a way to add the method only to the instance?  Oh, and please 
>don't ask me *why* I want to do this. Just trust me :)
>


You can use the module 'new' to create a new instance method for an
object

>>> import new
>>>class foo:
	def __init__(self):
		self.bar = 123

>>>f = foo()

>>> def newMethod (self):
		print self.bar

>>>f.newMethod = new.instancemethod (newMethod, f, foo)
>>>f.newMethod()

123

>>> g = foo()
>>> g.newMethod()
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#16>", line 1, in ?
    g.newMethod()
AttributeError: 'foo' instance has no attribute 'newMethod'

Notice that f has the newMethod, but it only applies to f, g does not
get the new method


Jay O'Connor
joconnor at cybermesa.com
http://www.cybermesa.com/~joconnor

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