Check existence of members/methods

[Alex Martelli]

Nicolas Fleury <nid_oizo at yahoo.com_remove_the_> wrote:
   ...
> def noraise(expressionString):
>      try: eval(expressionString)
>      except: return True
>      return False
> 
> if noraise("object.setXmlFilename"):
>      object.setXmlFilename(currentFilename)
> elif noraise("object.xmlFilename"):
>      object.xmlFilename = currentFilename
> 
> But it puts code in strings, which I feel less natural.  What do you 
> think about it?  Have I miss a better solution or is there something for
> that in the language?


try: meth = object.setXmlFilename
except AttributeError: meth = lambda x: setattr(object,'xmlFilename',x)
meth(currentFillename)

This doesn't assume that object.xmlFilename must already exist before
you can set it, which IS implied by your code here quoted -- it just
seems a slightly weird condition to me.

I personally prefer the try/except/else variant:

try: meth = object.setXmlFilename
except AttributeError: object.xmlFilename = x
else: meth(currentFillename)

it seems way simpler to me.  However, if you think of objects lacking a
setter method as weird and exceptional ones, I see why this might seem
backwards.  Personally, I consider setter methods the anomaly (it's
exactly to avoid them that we have property...:-) but I do understand
they're frequently used.  If I often had to fight with objects full of
getThis, setThat methods I'd wrap them into a generic wrapper with a
__setattr__ and __getattr__ to be able to use attribute get and set as
common sense and decency require, e.g, something like....:

class MakeSensible:
    def __init__(self, obj): self.__dict__['obj'] = obj
    def __getattr__(self, name):
         methname = 'get' + name[0].uppercase() + name[:1]
         return getattr(self.obj,methname)()
    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
         methname = 'set' + name[0].uppercase() + name[:1]
         return getattr(self.obj,methname)(value)

(or, you could build all the needed properties at wrapping time, but
it's unclear if that would be an advantage in performance and it would
surely take a bit more code!-).  Having made the object sensible once
and for all, thanks to this wrapper, you wouldn't need to thread
carefully throughout the rest of your application...


Alex