Python: Simple Decorator Example
In Python, a Decorator is a type of macro that allows you to inject or modify code in functions or classes. I was turned onto this by my friend Matt Chapman at ILM, but never fully grasped the importance.
class myDecorator(object): def __init__(self, f): self.f = f def __call__(self): print "Entering", self.f.__name__ self.f() print "Exited", self.f.__name__ @myDecorator def aFunction(): print "aFunction running" aFunction()
When you run the code above you will see the following:
>>Entering aFunction >>aFunction running >>Exited aFunction
So when we call a decorated function, we get a completely different behavior. You can wrap any existing functions, here is an example of wrapping functions for error reporting:
class catchAll: def __init__(self, function): self.function = function def __call__(self, *args): try: return self.function(*args) except Exception, e: print "Error: %s" % (e) @catchAll def unsafe(x): return 1 / x print "unsafe(1): ", unsafe(1) print "unsafe(0): ", unsafe(0)
So when we run this and divide by zero we get:
unsafe(1): 1 unsafe(0): Error: integer division or modulo by zero
Using decorators you can make sweeping changes to existing code with minimal effort, like the error reporting function above, you could go back and just sprinkle these in older code.