Override reversed(...) in Python 2.5

Question

I need a custom __reverse__ function for my class that I am deploying on App Engine, so it needs to work with Python 2.5. Is there a __future__ import or a workaround I could use?

Subclassing list won't work, as I need my class to be a subclass of dict.

EDIT:

Using OrderedDict will not solve the problems, because the dict keys are not the same the same as the list items.

This is the object I'm trying to create:

1. My object needs to provide the same attributes as a list, i.e. support iter(obj) and reverse(obj).

2. The elements must be instances of a special third party class.

3. Each elements is associated with a key.

4. Internally, need to access these objects using their keys. That's why I'd put them in a mapping.

I've revised my implementation to be a list subclass instead of a dict subclass, so here's what I have now:

class Foo(list):

   pat = {}

   def __init__(self):
       for app in APPS:  # these are strings
           obj = SpecialClass(app)
           self.append(obj)
           self.pat[app] = obj

   def __getitem__(self, item):

       # Use object as a list
       if isinstance(item, int):
           return super(Foo, self).__getitem__(item)

       # Use object as a dict
       if item not in self.pat:
           # Never raise a KeyError
           self.pat[item] = SpecialClass(None)
       return self.pat[item]

   def __setitem__(self, item, value):
       if isinstance(item, int):
           return self.pat.__setitem__(item, value)
       return super(Foo).__setitem__(item, value)

EDIT 2:

Now that my class is a subclass of list, my problem is resolved.

Answer 1

__reversed__ isn't supported in 2.5, so your only option if you really need to customize the reversed order of your collection, is to modify the places that you call reversed to use something else.

But I'm curious: if you are subclassing dict, then the order of items is arbitrary anyway, so what does reversed mean in this case?

Answer 2

Creating a custom __reversed__ is only possible since 2.6, so you can't simply implement that and have reversed working in 2.5. In 2.5 and below, you can however make your custom class still working with reversed by implementing the sequence protocol (i.e. implement both __len__ and __getitem__).

A different possibility would be to replace the built-in function reversed with a custom function that treats your custom class differently. This could work like this:

originalReversed = reversed
def myReversed ( seq ):
    if isinstance( seq, MyCustomClass ):
        # do something special
    else:
        return originalReversed( seq )
reversed = myReversed

However, I wouldn't recommend that as it changes the normal behaviour of built-in functions (obviously) and might confuse other users.. So you should rather implement the sequnce protocol to make reversed working.