Python Classes Without Boilerplate
Go to file
Hynek Schlawack 2e2748aee3
Clarify execution order in init (#488)
* Clarify execution order in init

Fixes #461

* Clarify attributes are processed in the order of declaration

* Simple past is good enough
2019-02-09 13:34:48 +01:00
.github There won't be a 18.3.0 2019-01-15 19:47:28 +01:00
changelog.d Make nicer link 2019-02-02 14:33:29 +01:00
docs Clarify execution order in init (#488) 2019-02-09 13:34:48 +01:00
src/attr Clear cache hash on de-serialization (#489) 2019-02-02 14:32:01 +01:00
tests Split test and fix warning 2019-02-02 14:36:56 +01:00
.coveragerc Move test helpers into an utils module 2016-08-15 15:27:13 +02:00
.gitignore Add PEP484 stubs (#238) 2018-07-12 12:19:24 +02:00
.pre-commit-config.yaml Use new flake8 pre-commit 2019-01-31 08:19:26 +01:00
.readthedocs.yml Use extra requirements for docs in RTD 2017-12-30 08:42:38 +01:00
.travis.yml RTD uses 3.5, so should we 2019-01-17 10:46:14 +01:00
AUTHORS.rst Consistently use "base class" and "subclass" (#436) 2018-08-29 18:52:47 +02:00
CHANGELOG.rst Due doesn't belong to the beginning of a sentence 2018-10-05 14:41:46 +02:00
LICENSE Gut docs for now 2015-01-27 23:03:04 +01:00
MANIFEST.in Just put everything into the sdist so everyone is happy 2018-12-07 11:36:25 +01:00
README.rst Fix a bunch of links 2018-08-20 07:21:02 +02:00
codecov.yml Use codecov.yml to stop comments (#397) 2018-06-19 12:47:10 +02:00
conftest.py Disable hypothesis.HealthCheck.too_slow globally (#396) 2018-06-17 13:32:48 +02:00
pyproject.toml Janitor packaging 2018-06-23 11:50:49 +02:00
setup.cfg Add explicit isort arguments from black's docs 2018-11-26 17:51:55 +01:00
setup.py Add python_requires in setup.py (#454) 2018-10-25 12:50:37 +02:00
tox.ini RTD uses 3.5, so should we 2019-01-17 10:46:14 +01:00

README.rst

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

.. image:: https://www.attrs.org/en/latest/_static/attrs_logo.png
   :alt: attrs Logo

======================================
``attrs``: Classes Without Boilerplate
======================================

.. image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/attrs/badge/?version=stable
   :target: https://www.attrs.org/en/stable/?badge=stable
   :alt: Documentation Status

.. image:: https://travis-ci.org/python-attrs/attrs.svg?branch=master
   :target: https://travis-ci.org/python-attrs/attrs
   :alt: CI Status

.. image:: https://codecov.io/github/python-attrs/attrs/branch/master/graph/badge.svg
   :target: https://codecov.io/github/python-attrs/attrs
   :alt: Test Coverage

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-black-000000.svg
   :target: https://github.com/ambv/black
   :alt: Code style: black

.. teaser-begin

``attrs`` is the Python package that will bring back the **joy** of **writing classes** by relieving you from the drudgery of implementing object protocols (aka `dunder <https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/200605/dunder.html>`_ methods).

Its main goal is to help you to write **concise** and **correct** software without slowing down your code.

.. -spiel-end-

For that, it gives you a class decorator and a way to declaratively define the attributes on that class:

.. -code-begin-

.. code-block:: pycon

   >>> import attr

   >>> @attr.s
   ... class SomeClass(object):
   ...     a_number = attr.ib(default=42)
   ...     list_of_numbers = attr.ib(factory=list)
   ...
   ...     def hard_math(self, another_number):
   ...         return self.a_number + sum(self.list_of_numbers) * another_number


   >>> sc = SomeClass(1, [1, 2, 3])
   >>> sc
   SomeClass(a_number=1, list_of_numbers=[1, 2, 3])

   >>> sc.hard_math(3)
   19
   >>> sc == SomeClass(1, [1, 2, 3])
   True
   >>> sc != SomeClass(2, [3, 2, 1])
   True

   >>> attr.asdict(sc)
   {'a_number': 1, 'list_of_numbers': [1, 2, 3]}

   >>> SomeClass()
   SomeClass(a_number=42, list_of_numbers=[])

   >>> C = attr.make_class("C", ["a", "b"])
   >>> C("foo", "bar")
   C(a='foo', b='bar')


After *declaring* your attributes ``attrs`` gives you:

- a concise and explicit overview of the class's attributes,
- a nice human-readable ``__repr__``,
- a complete set of comparison methods,
- an initializer,
- and much more,

*without* writing dull boilerplate code again and again and *without* runtime performance penalties.

On Python 3.6 and later, you can often even drop the calls to ``attr.ib()`` by using `type annotations <https://www.attrs.org/en/latest/types.html>`_.

This gives you the power to use actual classes with actual types in your code instead of confusing ``tuple``\ s or `confusingly behaving <https://www.attrs.org/en/stable/why.html#namedtuples>`_ ``namedtuple``\ s.
Which in turn encourages you to write *small classes* that do `one thing well <https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/boundaries>`_.
Never again violate the `single responsibility principle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle>`_ just because implementing ``__init__`` et al is a painful drag.


.. -testimonials-

Testimonials
============

**Amber Hawkie Brown**, Twisted Release Manager and Computer Owl:

  Writing a fully-functional class using attrs takes me less time than writing this testimonial.


**Glyph Lefkowitz**, creator of `Twisted <https://twistedmatrix.com/>`_, `Automat <https://pypi.org/project/Automat/>`_, and other open source software, in `The One Python Library Everyone Needs <https://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2016/08/attrs.html>`_:

  Im looking forward to is being able to program in Python-with-attrs everywhere.
  It exerts a subtle, but positive, design influence in all the codebases Ive see it used in.


**Kenneth Reitz**, author of `Requests <http://www.python-requests.org/>`_ and Developer Advocate at DigitalOcean, (`on paper no less <https://twitter.com/hynek/status/866817877650751488>`_!):

  attrs—classes for humans.  I like it.


**Łukasz Langa**, prolific CPython core developer and Production Engineer at Facebook:

  I'm increasingly digging your attr.ocity. Good job!


.. -end-

.. -project-information-

Getting Help
============

Please use the ``python-attrs`` tag on `StackOverflow <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/python-attrs>`_ to get help.

Answering questions of your fellow developers is also great way to help the project!


Project Information
===================

``attrs`` is released under the `MIT <https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/>`_ license,
its documentation lives at `Read the Docs <https://www.attrs.org/>`_,
the code on `GitHub <https://github.com/python-attrs/attrs>`_,
and the latest release on `PyPI <https://pypi.org/project/attrs/>`_.
Its rigorously tested on Python 2.7, 3.4+, and PyPy.

We collect information on **third-party extensions** in our `wiki <https://github.com/python-attrs/attrs/wiki/Extensions-to-attrs>`_.
Feel free to browse and add your own!

If you'd like to contribute to ``attrs`` you're most welcome and we've written `a little guide <https://www.attrs.org/en/latest/contributing.html>`_ to get you started!