Copy constructor and assignment operator

[MRAB]

On 2018-09-16 08:48, Ajay Patel wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> What happen if do copy using copy module? i can see address are 
> different when using copy module.
> Which magic method will call when i an doing deepcopy?
> Snippet>>>>>>
>
> >>> p =Point(4,5)
> __setattr__
> __setattr__
> __setattr__
> >>> p
> (4,5)
> >>> id(p)
> 3072575564
> >>> import copy
> >>> p2 = copy.deepcopy(p)
> >>> p
> (4,5)
> >>> id(p2)
> 3072522924
> >>>
>
You don't necessarily have to do anything else; the copy/deepcopy 
operation will create a new instance and copy/deepcopy the appropriate 
attributes for you.

However, if you want more control, you can define a couple of dunder 
methods to do it your own way.

I'll quote from the documentation page on the 'copy' module:

|"""|In order for a class to define its own copy implementation, it can 
define special methods |__copy__()| and |__deepcopy__()|. The former is 
called to implement the shallow copy operation; no additional arguments 
are passed. The latter is called to implement the deep copy operation; 
it is passed one argument, the memo dictionary. If the |__deepcopy__()| 
implementation needs to make a deep copy of a component, it should call 
the |deepcopy()| <#copy.deepcopy> function with the component as first 
argument and the memo dictionary as second argument."""
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 1:12 AM MRAB <python at mrabarnett.plus.com 
> <mailto:python at mrabarnett.plus.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 2018-09-15 19:47, Ajay Patel wrote:
>     >
>     > I have created below code and i want to restrict an object copy.
>     > What are the methods called for copy constructor and assignment
>     operator? Basically i don't want to allow below operation.
>     >
>     > p = Point(1,3)
>     > p2 = Point(6,7)
>     >
>     > => How to disallow below operations?
>     > p(p2)
>     > p = p2
>     >
>     > Please point out a documentation for the same if available.
>     >
>     >
>     > class Point:
>     >
>     >          def _init_(self, x = 0, y = 0):
>     >                  self.x = x
>     >                  self.y = y
>     >
>     >          def _str_(self):
>     >                  return "({0},{1})".format(self.x,self.y)
>     >
>     >          def _repr_(self):
>     >                  return "({0},{1})".format(self.x,self.y)
>     >
>     >          def _call_(self,other):
>     >                  print("_call_")
>     >                  self.x = other.x
>     >                  self.y = other.y
>     >
>     >          def _setattr_(self, name, value):
>     >                  print("_setattr_",name,value)
>     >
>
>     "__init__", etc, are referred to as "dunder" methods because they
>     have
>     double leading and trailing underscores. Those that you wrote have
>     only
>     single leading and trailing underscores.
>
>     The term "copy constructor" is something from C++. It doesn't
>     exist in
>     Python.
>
>     Assignment statements _never_ copy an object. If you want a copy
>     of an
>     object, you have to be explicit.
>
>     Writing:
>
>     p = p2
>
>     will merely make 'p' refer to the same object that 'p2' currently
>     refers to.
>
>     For making a copy of an object, have a look at the "copy" module.
>     -- 
>     https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
>
>
> -- 
> *Er. Ajay A Patel*
>