Class design question

[George Sakkis]

On Oct 3, 1:04 pm, Adam Lanier <a... at krusty.madoff.com> wrote:
> Relatively new to python development and I have a general question
> regarding good class design.
>
> Say I have a couple of classes:
>
>         Class Foo:
>             params = [ ]
>             __init__( self, param ):
>                 ...
>
>         Class Bar:
>             data = None
>             __init__( self, data ):
>                 ...
>
> The class is going to be a wrapper around a list of Bars() (among other
> things).  I want the ability to pass to the constructor of Foo either:
>         a string                'baz'
>         a Bar object            Bar( 'baz' )
>         a list of strings and/or bars ( 'baz', Bar( 'something else' ))
>
> Am I going to have to use isinstance() to test the parameter to __init__
> to see what type of data I'm passing in, i.e.,
>
>         Class Foo:
>             params = [ ]
>             __init__( self, param ):
>                 if isinstance( param, list ):
>                     for p in param:
>                         addParam( p )
>                 elif isinstance( param, str):
>                     addParam( param )
>
>             addParam( self, param ):
>                 if isinstance( param, Bar ):
>                         self.params.add( param )
>                 elif isinstance( param, str ):
>                         self.params.add( Bar( param ))
>                 else:
>                         raise TypeError( "wrong type of input" )
>
> Am I missing something here or is there a more Pythonic way to
> accomplish this?

I would use variable argument list for this; it's also consistent with
your example Foo( 'baz', Bar( 'something else' )), otherwise you need
to call it as Foo([ 'baz', Bar( 'something else' ) ])

# always inherit from object unless you have a good reason not to
class Foo(object):

    # XXX this is a class instance, shared by all Foo instances;
    # XXX probably not what you intended
    params = [ ]

    def __init__(self, *args):
        # uncomment the following line for instance-specific params
        # self.params = []
        for arg in args:
            if not isinstance(arg, Bar):
               # let the Bar constructor to do typechecking or whatnot
                arg = Bar(arg)
            self.params.add(arg)


HTH,
George