Dynamically creating class properties

[Paul Hankin]

On Oct 4, 9:59 pm, Karlo Lozovina <_karlo_ at _mosor.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> this is my problem: lets say I have a arbitrary long list of attributes
> that I want to attach to some class, for example:
>
>      l = ['item1', 'item2', 'item3']
>
> Using metaclasses I managed to create a class with those three
> attributes just fine. But now I need those attributes to be properties,
> so for example if 'A' is my constructed class, and 'a' an instance of
> that class:
>
>     a = A()
>
> Now if I write:
>
>     a.item1 = 'something'
>     print a.item1
>
> I want it to be actually:
>
>     a.setitem1('something')
>     print a.getitem1
>
> Any idea how to do that with metaclasses and arbitrary long list of
> attributes? I just started working with them, and it's driving me nuts :).

No metaclasses, but how about this?

def make_class(name, attributes):
    # Build class dictionary.
    d = dict(_attributes=list(attributes))
    # Add in getters and setters from global namespace.
    for attr in attributes:
        d[attr] = property(globals()['get' + attr],
            globals()['set' + attr])
    # Construct our class.
    return type(name, (object,), d)


# Test code:

def getitem1(self):
    return self._fred + 1

def setitem1(self, value):
    self._fred = value

A = make_class('A', ['item1'])
a = A()

a.item1 = 19
print a.item1

>> 20


You didn't say where the getters and setters (here 'getitem1',
'setitem1', etc.) come from. I've assumed from the global namespace
but you probably want to change that.

--
Paul Hankin