Decorators - Object Oriented Programming

Table of Contents

_D_ecorators are wrapper functions (or classes) that wrap and modify another function (or class), and change it's behavior as required. Decorators help to modify your code without actually modifying the working function/class itself.

There are several inbuilt Decorators in Python, such as @classmethod and @staticmethod. Examples on these are due for another post.

Decorators are called to act upon a function or class, by mentioning the Decorator name just above the function/class.

Decorators are written such as it returns a function, rather than output something.

Example 0:

[code language='python'] @my_decorator def my_func(): print("Hello")

my_func() [/code]

In the above code snippet, when my_func() is called, the python interpreter calls the decorator function my_decorator, executes it, and then passes the result to my_func().

The example above doesn't do anything worth, but the following example should help to get a better idea.

NOTE: The examples below are taken from the excellent talks done by Jillian Munson (in PyGotham 2014) and Mike Burns for ThoughtBot. The URLs are at [1] and [2]. All credit goes to them.

Example 1:

[code language="python"] def my_decorator(my_function): def inner_decorator(): print("This happened before!") my_function() print("This happens after ") print("This happened at the end!") return inner_decorator

@my_decorator def my_decorated(): print("This happened!")

if __name__ == '__main__': my_decorated() [/code]

Components:
#

A function named my_decorated().
A decorator function named my_decorator().
The decorator function my_decorator() has a function within itself named inner_decorator().
The decorator function my_decorator(), returns the inner function inner_decorator().
1. Every function should return a value, if not it defaults to None.
2. my_decorator() decorator should return the inner_decorator() inner function, else the decorator cannot be used with the my_decorated() function.
3. To understand this, test with 'return None' for the decorator function my_decorator().
The inner function inner_decorator() is the one that actually decorates (modifies) the function my_decorated().
The decorator function is called on the function my_decorated() using the format @my_decorator.
The decorator function takes an argument, which can be named whatever the developer decides. When the decorator function is executed, the argument is replaced with the function name on which the decorator is executed. In our case, it would be my_decorated()

How does the code work?
#

The function my_decorated() is called.
The interpreter sees that the decorator @my_decorator is called wrt this function.
The interpreter searches for a function named my_decorator()and executes it.
Since the decorator function returns the inner function inner_decorator(), the python interpreter executes the inner function.
It goes through each steps, reaches my_function() , and gets it executed.
Once that function is executed, it goes back and continues with the execution of the decorator my_decorator().

Output:
#

[code language="bash"] # python decorators-1.py This happened before! # Called from the decorator This happened! # Called from the function This happens after # Called from the decorator This happened at the end! # Called from the decorator [/code]

Example 2:

[code language="python"] def double(my_func): def inner_func(a, b): return 2 * my_func(a, b) return inner_func

@double def adder(a, b): return a + b

@double def subtractor(a, b): return a - b

print(adder(10, 20)) print(subtractor(6, 1)) [/code]

Components:
#

Two functions named adder() and subtractor().
A decorator function named double().
The decorator has an inner function named inner_func() which does the actual intended work.
The decorator returns the value of the inner function inner_func()
Both the adder() and subtractor()functions are decorated with the decorator double()

How does the code work?
#

We call the adder() and subtractor() functions with a print(), since the said functions don't print by default (due to the return statement).
The python interpreter sees the decorator @double and calls it.
Since the decorator returns the inner function inner_func(), the interpreter executes it.
The decorator takes an argument my_func, which is always the function on which the decorator is applied, ie.. in our case my_case == adder()and my_case == subtractor().
The inner function within the decorator takes arguments, which are the arguments passed to the functions that are being decorated. ie.. Any arguments passed to adder() and subtractor()are passed to inner_func().
The statement return 2 * my_func(a, b) returns the value of :
1. 2 x adder(10, 20)
2. 2 x subtractor(6, 1)