Python - Using __getattribute__ method

Question

I want to override access to one variable in a class, but return all others normally. How do I accomplish this with __getattribute__?

I tried the following (which should also illustrate what I'm trying to do) but I get a recursion error:

class D(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.test=20
        self.test2=21
    def __getattribute__(self,name):
        if name=='test':
            return 0.
        else:
            return self.__dict__[name]

>>> print D().test
0.0
>>> print D().test2
...
RuntimeError: maximum recursion depth exceeded in cmp

Answer 1

You get a recurison error because you call the same function, your getattribute. If you use object's __getattribute__ instead, it works:

class D(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.test=20
        self.test2=21
    def __getattribute__(self,name):
        if name=='test':
            return 0.
        else:
            return object.__getattribute__(self, name)

This works because object (in this example) is the base class. By calling the base version of __getattribute__ you avoid the recursive hell you were in before.

Ipython output with code in foo.py:

In [1]: from foo import *

In [2]: d = D()

In [3]: d.test
Out[3]: 0.0

In [4]: d.test2
Out[4]: 21

Answer 2

Are you sure you want to use getattribute? What are you actually trying to achieve?

The easiest way to do what you ask is:

class D(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.test = 20
        self.test2 = 21

    test = 0

or:

class D(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.test = 20
        self.test2 = 21

    @property
    def test(self):
        return 0

Edit: Note that an instance of D would have different values of test in each case. In the first case d.test would be 20, in the second it would be 0. I'll leave it to you to work out why.

Edit2: Greg pointed out that example 2 will fail because the property is read only and the __init__ method tried to set it to 20. A more complete example for that would be:

class D(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.test = 20
        self.test2 = 21

    _test = 0

    def get_test(self):
        return self._test

    def set_test(self, value):
        self._test = value

    test = property(get_test, set_test)

Obviously, as a class this is almost entirely useless, but it gives you an idea to move on from.

Answer 3

Python language reference:

In order to avoid infinite recursion in this method, its implementation should always call the base class method with the same name to access any attributes it needs, for example, object.getattribute(self, name).

Meaning:

def __getattribute__(self,name):
    ...
        return self.__dict__[name]

You're calling for an attribute called __dict__. Because it's an attribute __getattribute__ get's called in search for __dict__ which calls __getattribute__ which calls ... yada yada yada

return  object.__getattribute__(self, name)

Using the base classes __getattribute__ helps finding the real attribute.

Answer 4

Actually, I believe you want to use the __getattr__ special method instead.

Quote from the Python docs:

__getattr__( self, name)

Called when an attribute lookup has not found the attribute in the usual places (i.e. it is not an instance attribute nor is it found in the class tree for self). name is the attribute name. This method should return the (computed) attribute value or raise an AttributeError exception.
Note that if the attribute is found through the normal mechanism, __getattr__() is not called. (This is an intentional asymmetry between __getattr__() and __setattr__().) This is done both for efficiency reasons and because otherwise __setattr__() would have no way to access other attributes of the instance. Note that at least for instance variables, you can fake total control by not inserting any values in the instance attribute dictionary (but instead inserting them in another object). See the __getattribute__() method below for a way to actually get total control in new-style classes.