I have a dictionary called fsdata at module level (like a global variable).
The content gets read from the file system. It should load its data once on the first access. Up to now it loads the data during importing the module. This should be optimized.
If no code accesses fsdata, the content should not be read from the file system (save CPU/IO).
Loading should happen, if you check for the boolean value, too:
if mymodule.fsdata:
... do_something()
Update: Some code already uses mymodule.fsdata. I don't want to change the other places. It should be variable, not a function. And "mymodule" needs to be a module, since it gets already used in a lot of code.
I think you should use Future/Promise like this https://gist.github.com/2935416
Main point - you create not an object, but a 'promise' about object, that behave like an object.
You can replace your module with an object that has descriptor semantics:
class FooModule(object):
#property
def bar(self):
print "get"
import sys
sys.modules[__name__] = FooModule()
Take a look at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/apipkg for a packaged approach.
You could just create a simple function that memoizes the data:
fsdata = []
def get_fsdata:
if not fsdata:
fsdata.append(load_fsdata_from_file())
return fsdata[0]
(I'm using a list as that's an easy way to make a variable global without mucking around with the global keyword).
Now instead of referring to module.fsdata you can just call module.get_fsdata().
Related
I've run into a bit of a wall importing modules in a Python script. I'll do my best to describe the error, why I run into it, and why I'm tying this particular approach to solve my problem (which I will describe in a second):
Let's suppose I have a module in which I've defined some utility functions/classes, which refer to entities defined in the namespace into which this auxiliary module will be imported (let "a" be such an entity):
module1:
def f():
print a
And then I have the main program, where "a" is defined, into which I want to import those utilities:
import module1
a=3
module1.f()
Executing the program will trigger the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "Z:\Python\main.py", line 10, in <module>
module1.f()
File "Z:\Python\module1.py", line 3, in f
print a
NameError: global name 'a' is not defined
Similar questions have been asked in the past (two days ago, d'uh) and several solutions have been suggested, however I don't really think these fit my requirements. Here's my particular context:
I'm trying to make a Python program which connects to a MySQL database server and displays/modifies data with a GUI. For cleanliness sake, I've defined the bunch of auxiliary/utility MySQL-related functions in a separate file. However they all have a common variable, which I had originally defined inside the utilities module, and which is the cursor object from MySQLdb module.
I later realised that the cursor object (which is used to communicate with the db server) should be defined in the main module, so that both the main module and anything that is imported into it can access that object.
End result would be something like this:
utilities_module.py:
def utility_1(args):
code which references a variable named "cur"
def utility_n(args):
etcetera
And my main module:
program.py:
import MySQLdb, Tkinter
db=MySQLdb.connect(#blahblah) ; cur=db.cursor() #cur is defined!
from utilities_module import *
And then, as soon as I try to call any of the utilities functions, it triggers the aforementioned "global name not defined" error.
A particular suggestion was to have a "from program import cur" statement in the utilities file, such as this:
utilities_module.py:
from program import cur
#rest of function definitions
program.py:
import Tkinter, MySQLdb
db=MySQLdb.connect(#blahblah) ; cur=db.cursor() #cur is defined!
from utilities_module import *
But that's cyclic import or something like that and, bottom line, it crashes too. So my question is:
How in hell can I make the "cur" object, defined in the main module, visible to those auxiliary functions which are imported into it?
Thanks for your time and my deepest apologies if the solution has been posted elsewhere. I just can't find the answer myself and I've got no more tricks in my book.
Globals in Python are global to a module, not across all modules. (Many people are confused by this, because in, say, C, a global is the same across all implementation files unless you explicitly make it static.)
There are different ways to solve this, depending on your actual use case.
Before even going down this path, ask yourself whether this really needs to be global. Maybe you really want a class, with f as an instance method, rather than just a free function? Then you could do something like this:
import module1
thingy1 = module1.Thingy(a=3)
thingy1.f()
If you really do want a global, but it's just there to be used by module1, set it in that module.
import module1
module1.a=3
module1.f()
On the other hand, if a is shared by a whole lot of modules, put it somewhere else, and have everyone import it:
import shared_stuff
import module1
shared_stuff.a = 3
module1.f()
… and, in module1.py:
import shared_stuff
def f():
print shared_stuff.a
Don't use a from import unless the variable is intended to be a constant. from shared_stuff import a would create a new a variable initialized to whatever shared_stuff.a referred to at the time of the import, and this new a variable would not be affected by assignments to shared_stuff.a.
Or, in the rare case that you really do need it to be truly global everywhere, like a builtin, add it to the builtin module. The exact details differ between Python 2.x and 3.x. In 3.x, it works like this:
import builtins
import module1
builtins.a = 3
module1.f()
As a workaround, you could consider setting environment variables in the outer layer, like this.
main.py:
import os
os.environ['MYVAL'] = str(myintvariable)
mymodule.py:
import os
myval = None
if 'MYVAL' in os.environ:
myval = os.environ['MYVAL']
As an extra precaution, handle the case when MYVAL is not defined inside the module.
This post is just an observation for Python behaviour I encountered. Maybe the advices you read above don't work for you if you made the same thing I did below.
Namely, I have a module which contains global/shared variables (as suggested above):
#sharedstuff.py
globaltimes_randomnode=[]
globalist_randomnode=[]
Then I had the main module which imports the shared stuff with:
import sharedstuff as shared
and some other modules that actually populated these arrays. These are called by the main module. When exiting these other modules I can clearly see that the arrays are populated. But when reading them back in the main module, they were empty. This was rather strange for me (well, I am new to Python). However, when I change the way I import the sharedstuff.py in the main module to:
from globals import *
it worked (the arrays were populated).
Just sayin'
A function uses the globals of the module it's defined in. Instead of setting a = 3, for example, you should be setting module1.a = 3. So, if you want cur available as a global in utilities_module, set utilities_module.cur.
A better solution: don't use globals. Pass the variables you need into the functions that need it, or create a class to bundle all the data together, and pass it when initializing the instance.
The easiest solution to this particular problem would have been to add another function within the module that would have stored the cursor in a variable global to the module. Then all the other functions could use it as well.
module1:
cursor = None
def setCursor(cur):
global cursor
cursor = cur
def method(some, args):
global cursor
do_stuff(cursor, some, args)
main program:
import module1
cursor = get_a_cursor()
module1.setCursor(cursor)
module1.method()
Since globals are module specific, you can add the following function to all imported modules, and then use it to:
Add singular variables (in dictionary format) as globals for those
Transfer your main module globals to it
.
addglobals = lambda x: globals().update(x)
Then all you need to pass on current globals is:
import module
module.addglobals(globals())
Since I haven't seen it in the answers above, I thought I would add my simple workaround, which is just to add a global_dict argument to the function requiring the calling module's globals, and then pass the dict into the function when calling; e.g:
# external_module
def imported_function(global_dict=None):
print(global_dict["a"])
# calling_module
a = 12
from external_module import imported_function
imported_function(global_dict=globals())
>>> 12
The OOP way of doing this would be to make your module a class instead of a set of unbound methods. Then you could use __init__ or a setter method to set the variables from the caller for use in the module methods.
Update
To test the theory, I created a module and put it on pypi. It all worked perfectly.
pip install superglobals
Short answer
This works fine in Python 2 or 3:
import inspect
def superglobals():
_globals = dict(inspect.getmembers(
inspect.stack()[len(inspect.stack()) - 1][0]))["f_globals"]
return _globals
save as superglobals.py and employ in another module thusly:
from superglobals import *
superglobals()['var'] = value
Extended Answer
You can add some extra functions to make things more attractive.
def superglobals():
_globals = dict(inspect.getmembers(
inspect.stack()[len(inspect.stack()) - 1][0]))["f_globals"]
return _globals
def getglobal(key, default=None):
"""
getglobal(key[, default]) -> value
Return the value for key if key is in the global dictionary, else default.
"""
_globals = dict(inspect.getmembers(
inspect.stack()[len(inspect.stack()) - 1][0]))["f_globals"]
return _globals.get(key, default)
def setglobal(key, value):
_globals = superglobals()
_globals[key] = value
def defaultglobal(key, value):
"""
defaultglobal(key, value)
Set the value of global variable `key` if it is not otherwise st
"""
_globals = superglobals()
if key not in _globals:
_globals[key] = value
Then use thusly:
from superglobals import *
setglobal('test', 123)
defaultglobal('test', 456)
assert(getglobal('test') == 123)
Justification
The "python purity league" answers that litter this question are perfectly correct, but in some environments (such as IDAPython) which is basically single threaded with a large globally instantiated API, it just doesn't matter as much.
It's still bad form and a bad practice to encourage, but sometimes it's just easier. Especially when the code you are writing isn't going to have a very long life.
I'm trying to dynamically update code during runtime by reloading modules using importlib.reload. However, I need a specific module variable to be set before the module's code is executed. I could easily set it as an attribute after reloading but each module would have already executed its code (e.g., defined its default arguments).
A simple example:
# module.py
def do():
try:
print(a)
except NameError:
print('failed')
# main.py
import module
module.do() # prints failed
module.a = 'succeeded'
module.do() # prints succeeded
The desired pseudocode:
import_module_without_executing_code module
module.initialise(a = 'succeeded')
module.do()
Is there a way to control module namespace initialisation (like with classes using metaclasses)?
It's not usually a good idea to use reload other than for interactive debugging. For example, it can easily create situations where two objects of type module.A are not the same type.
What you want is execfile. Pass a globals dictionary (you don't need an explicit locals dictionary) to keep each execution isolated; anything you store in it ahead of time acts exactly like the "pre-set" variables you want. If you do want to have a "real" module interface change, you can have a wrapper module that calls (or just holds as an attribute) the most recently loaded function from your changing file.
Of course, since you're using Python 3, you'll have to use one of the replacements for execfile.
Strictly speaking, I don't believe there is a way to do what you're describing in Python natively. However, assuming you own the module you're trying to import, a common approach with Python modules that need some initializing input is to use an init function.
If all you need is some internal variables to be set, like a in you example above, that's easy: just declare some module-global variables and set them in your init function:
Demo: https://repl.it/MyK0
Module:
## mymodule.py
a = None
def do():
print(a)
def init(_a):
global a
a = _a
Main:
## main.py
import mymodule
mymodule.init(123)
mymodule.do()
mymodule.init('foo')
mymodule.do()
Output:
123
foo
Where things can get trickier is if you need to actually redefine some functions because some dynamic internal something is dependent on the input you give. Here's one solution, borrowed from https://stackoverflow.com/a/1676860. Basically, the idea is to grab a reference to the current module by using the magic variable __name__ to index into the system module dictionary, sys.modules, and then define or overwrite the functions that need it. We can define the functions locally as inner functions, then add them to the module:
Demo: https://repl.it/MyHT/2
Module:
## mymodule.py
import sys
def init(a):
current_module = sys.modules[__name__]
def _do():
try:
print(a)
except NameError:
print('failed')
current_module.do = _do
I'm using Python 2.7. I'm also using a library known as id3reader to get metadata from mp3 files. If I use this code:
import tkFileDialog
import id3reader
file = tkFileDialog.askopenfile()
id3r = id3reader.Reader(file)
print(id3r.getValue('performer')
everything works just fine, and the artist of the song's name will be printed out in the console.
However, I am trying to do this across different functions. So if I use this code:
import tkFileDialog
import id3reader
def Load(self):
file = tkFileDialog.askopenfile()
def Display(self):
id3r = id3reader.Reader(file)
print(id3r.getValue('performer')
I get an error coming from within the id3reader script. If I use:
self.file
or
fileName = file
global fileName
I get a global variable not defined error.
How would I be able to use the built-in 'file' variable across different functions?
You're confusing a bunch of different things.
First, the built-in file variable is the actual type of file objects. You don't want to use that, you're trying to hide it with the filename you got back from askopenfile().
And file is not a Tkinter variable—neither the builtin, nor the one you're creating, have anything to do with Tkinter.
The reason your code isn't working is that, inside the Load function, when you write file = tkFileDialog.askopenfile(), you're creating a local variable. That local variable hides the name of the global variable of the same name, until the function exits, at which point it goes away.
Your attempt to use self.file is a great solution—except you don't have any classes. If you want to learn about how to use classes in general, and the idiomatic way to use them with Tkinter in particular, that's a great thing to learn, but it's too much to teach in a StackOverflow answer, and Python already comes with a great tutorial.
If you want to use a global variable, you can do that, but (a) you have to use global file, not global fileName, if you want file to be global, and (b) you have to put that inside the Load function, not at the top level. If you do both of those, then that file = tkFileDialog.askopenfile() will now reassign the global variable file, instead of hiding it with a local variable, so the value will still be available once you're done, to any other function that wants to access it.
However, a better solution is to not try to share a global variable. Just return the value, and have the caller hold onto it and pass it into Display. Since I can't see the code you're using to call those functions, I'll have to make something up, but hopefully you can understand it and apply it to your own code:
def Load():
return tkFileDialog.askopenfile()
def Display(file):
id3r = id3reader.Reader(file)
print(id3r.getValue('performer')
f = Load()
Display(f)
I have the following:
objects
__init__.py
define.py
define.py:
class Place:
def __init__(self,name,inhabitants):
self.name=name
self.inhabitants=inhabitants
myFunction.toStoreThings.on.db(name,inhabitants,'places')
def someUsefulFunction(self):
pass
If I run import objects, moon=objects.Place('Moon',[]), close the interpreter and open it again. I obviously loose the moon instance, but I have (u'Moon',u'[]') stored in the database. I already made __init__.py retrieve that information from the database and unstring it, but I'd also like it to instantiate 'Moon' as Moon=Place('Moon',[]) so I can use Moon.someUsefulFunction() or objects.Moon.someUsefulFunction() even after I close the interpreter. How can I achieve this?
I was able to do it like this:
__init__.py:
# myFunction() creates a dictionary `objdic` of the stuff in the database
# >>>objects.objdic
# {'places' : [['Moon',[]]]}
instancesdic={}
instancesdic['places']={}
instancesdic['places'][objdic['places'][0][0]]=Place(*objdic['places'][0])
Which gives
>>> objects.instancesdic
{'places': {'Moon': <objects.Place instance at 0x1b29248>}}
This way I can use
objects.instancesdic['places']['Moon'].someUsefulFunction()
Which is ok, but I really wanted objects.Moon.someUsefulFunction(). Any attempt to call that whole thing Moon results either in:
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment
Or in just the key in the dictionary being changed to an instance, instead of the Moon instance being created.
You could use the setattr function to set module attributes on the objects module, or you could update globals within that module. So within your __init__.py you could do:
objDict = {obj[0]: Place(*obj) for obj in objdict['places']}
globals().update(objDict)
This will then let you do object.Moon, etc.
There is some danger to be aware of, though. If any of your objects have the same name as anything else already created in objects, they will overwrite those things. So if objects has a function called myFunc and then you create an object called myFunc, it could overwrite the function with the object. (Which will overwrite which depends on which order you do things in.)
For this reason, it's probably not a good idea to do this automatically in __init__.py. It can make sense to do this for ease of use in the interactive interpreter, but modifying globals in this way will get ugly if you use it in scripts. It might be a better idea to create a function called initGlobals or something, and then call that function to set up your interactive environment. If you put the code I showed above into such a function, then call it, it will set up the environment. This lets you separate the simple importing of the module from actually creating global objects from the db, because sometimes you might want to do one but not the other.
So I have a dictionary with a bunch of names that I use to call functions. It works fine, but I prefer to put it in my settings file. If I do so, though, I will get errors from the settings file saying that there are no functions by that name(even though I'm not calling them at the time). Any workarounds?
def callfunct(id, time):
#stuff here
def callotherfunct(id, time):
#stuff here
dict = {"blah blah": callfunct, "blah blah blah": callfunct, "otherblah": callotherfunct}
dict[str(nameid)](id, time)
Hope this makes sense. Also open to other ideas, but basically I have about 50 iterations of these definitions and unique names that are passed by nameid that need to call specific functions, so that's why I do it the way I do, so that I can add new names quickly. It would obviously be even quicker if I could get the dictionary into the settings file seamlessly as well.
If you try
def f_one(id, time):
pass
def f_two(id, time):
pass
d = {"blah blah":"f_one", "blah blah blah":"f_one", "otherblah","f_two"
locals()[d[str(nameid)]](id, time)
(replacing the dictionary initialization with just loading the config file with the string name of the functions you want to call), does that work?
If not, there needs to be a little more info: What does the config file look like, and how are you loading it?
I'm guessing the reason that the config file part isn't working is that you're trying to reference the functions directly from the config file, which shouldn't work. This is using whatever's stored in the config file and looking it up in the locals() dictionary (if you're in a function, you'll have to use globals() instead)
You could initialise the dictionary with the looked up function only when you attempt to access it:
d = {}
d.setdefault('func1', globals()['func1'])()