Implementation of a __class_getattribute__
Adding a method to a class called __getattribute__ allows the user to modify how items are grabbed from a class, as shown below:
class A:
def __getattribute__(self, attr):
print(attr)
a = A()
a.print_me
# outputs "print_me"
However there is no class equivalent so the following code would raise an attribute error
class A:
def __getattribute__(self, attr):
print(attr)
A.error
# raises an attribute error
Pitch
The implementation of this would help with the singleton pattern (where only version of the class can exist at any one point). Lets suppose we have a class called “settings” and we only want one world to exist at any given point. We could pass the class around in functions and self impose that we can have one version of that class but that gets messy. Other suggestions include changing the __new__ attribute of the class and return an existing instance if possible. This approach still requires the user to use the initialization syntax, className() which can make it look like the user is making multiple instances of one class. The best approach would be to just reference the class name and then get what attributes you want.
Pass class instance around approach
def function(settings):
settings.a = True
settings.b = False
settings.c = 5
Make new instance of class each time
def function():
Settings().a = True
Settings().b = False
Settings().c = 5
Proposed way
def function():
Settings.a = True
Settings.b = False
Settings.c = 5
The implementation of the “Settings” class to enable this would look like:
class Settings:
__instance = None
def __class_getattribute__(cls, attribute):
if cls.__instance is None:
cls.__instance = cls()
return getattr(cls, attribute)
Overall, the __class_getattribute__ is very similar to __class_getattr__ but it is for the dot notation (a.b).