Question

In setUp() method of unittest I’ve setup some self variables, which are later referenced in actual tests. I’ve also created a decorator to do some logging. Is there a way in which I can access those self variables from decorator?

For the sake of simplicity, I’m posting this code:

def decorator(func):
    def _decorator(*args, **kwargs):
        # access a from TestSample
        func(*args, **kwargs)
    return _decorator

class TestSample(unittest.TestCase):    
    def setUp(self):
        self.a = 10

    def tearDown(self):
        # tear down code

    @decorator
    def test_a(self):
        # testing code goes here

What would be the best way of accessing a (set in setUp()) from decorator?

Answer 1

Since you’re decorating a method, and self is a method argument, your decorator has access to self at runtime. Obviously not at parsetime, because there are no objects yet, just a class.

So you change your decorator to:

def decorator(func):
    def _decorator(self, *args, **kwargs):
        # access a from TestSample
        print 'self is %s' % self
        return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
    return _decorator