python - Assign function arguments to `self`

Question

I've noticed that a common pattern I use is to assign SomeClass.__init__() arguments to self attributes of the same name. Example:

class SomeClass():
    def __init__(self, a, b, c):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b
        self.c = c

In fact it must be a common task for others as well as PyDev has a shortcut for this - if you place the cursor on the parameter list and click Ctrl+1 you're given the option to Assign parameters to attributes which will create that boilerplate code for you.

Is there a different, short and elegant way to perform this assignment?

Answer 1

I sympathize with your sense that boilerplate code is a bad thing. But in this case, I'm not sure there even could be a better alternative. Let's consider the possibilities.

If you're talking about just a few variables, then a series of self.x = x lines is easy to read. In fact, I think its explicitness makes that approach preferable from a readability standpoint. And while it might be a slight pain to type, that alone isn't quite enough to justify a new language construct that might obscure what's really going on. Certainly using vars(self).update() shenanigans would be more confusing than it's worth in this case.

On the other hand, if you're passing nine, ten, or more parameters to __init__, you probably need to refactor anyway. So this concern really only applies to cases that involve passing, say, 5-8 parameters. Now I can see how eight lines of self.x = x would be annoying both to type and to read; but I'm not sure that the 5-8 parameter case is common enough or troublesome enough to justify using a different method. So I think that, while the concern you're raising is a good one in principle, in practice, there are other limiting issues that make it irrelevant.

To make this point more concrete, let's consider a function that takes an object, a dict, and a list of names, and assigns values from the dict to names from the list. This ensures that you're still being explicit about which variables are being assigned to self. (I would never suggest a solution to this problem that didn't call for an explicit enumeration of the variables to be assigned; that would be a rare-earth bug magnet):

>>> def assign_attributes(obj, localdict, names):
...     for name in names:
...         setattr(obj, name, localdict[name])
...
>>> class SomeClass():
...     def __init__(self, a, b, c):
...         assign_attributes(self, vars(), ['a', 'b', 'c'])

Now, while not horribly unattractive, this is still harder to figure out than a straightforward series of self.x = x lines. And it's also longer and more trouble to type than one, two, and maybe even three or four lines, depending on circumstances. So you only get certain payoff starting with the five-parameter case. But that's also the exact moment that you begin to approach the limit on human short-term memory capacity (= 7 +/- 2 "chunks"). So in this case, your code is already a bit challenging to read, and this would only make it more challenging.