Question

Note:

The accepted answer on the other question shows how to use the parent decorater.

The accepted answer on this question shows moving the decorator to the module scope.

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EDIT: Using the previous example was a bad idea. Hopefully this is more clear:

class A:
    def deco( func ):
        print repr(func)
        def wrapper( self, *args ):
            val = func( *args )
            self.do_something()
            return val
        return wrapper

    def do_something( self ):
        # Do something
        print 'A: Doing something generic for decoration'

    @deco
    def do_some_A_thing ( self ):
        # Do something 
        print 'A: Doing something generic'

class B ( A ):

    @deco
    def do_some_B_thing( self ):
        # Do something
        print "B: Doing something specific"

a = A()
b = B()
a.do_some_A_thing()
b.do_some_B_thing()

#Expected Output:
    #A: Doing something generic
    #A: Doing something generic for decoration
    #B: Doing something specific
    #A: Doing something generic for decoration

This code generates a NameError: name ‘deco’ is not defined inside B.
The decorator needs to be inside the class scope because I require access to stored state.

Third Edit: On Sven’s suggestions, I tried this:

class A:
    def deco( func ):
        def wrapper( self, *args ):
            val = func( *args )
            self.do_something(*args)
            return val
        return wrapper

    def do_something( self ):
        # Do something
        print 'A: Doing something generic for decoration'

    @deco
    def do_some_A_thing ( self ):
        # Do something 
        print 'A: Doing something generic'

    deco = staticmethod(deco)

class B ( A ):

    @A.deco
    def do_some_B_thing( self ):
        # Do something
        print "B: Doing something specific"



a = A()
b = B()
a.do_some_A_thing()
b.do_some_B_thing()

#Expected Output:
    #A: Doing something generic
    #A: Doing something generic for decoration
    #B: Doing something specific
    #A: Doing something generic for decoration

I now have have TypeError: do_some_A_thing() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given). Any pointers?

Answer 1

The problem is that inheritance works for instance attribute lookup, not for class definitions. So when you try to decorate with A.deco in B, it can’t find it. The solution is to move deco out to module scope, and because there is nothing magic about the name self, you can keep using it. You also need to explicitly pass self to func, and you do not need to pass it in self.do_something(). Here’s the updated code:

def deco( func ):
    print repr( func )
    def wrapper( self, *args ):
        val = func( self, *args )
        self.do_something()
        return val
    return wrapper

class A:
    def do_something( self ):
        # Do something
        print 'A: Doing something generic for decoration'

    @deco
    def do_some_A_thing ( self ):
        # Do something 
        print 'A: Doing something generic'

class B ( A ):

    @deco
    def do_some_B_thing( self ):
        # Do something
        print "B: Doing something specific"

a = A()
b = B()
a.do_some_A_thing()
b.do_some_B_thing()