Customizing Class Un/structuring#
This section deals with customizing the unstructuring and structuring processes in cattrs.
Using cattrs.Converter
#
The default Converter
, upon first encountering an attrs class, will use the generation functions mentioned here to generate the specialized hooks for it, register the hooks and use them.
Manual Un/structuring Hooks#
You can write your own structuring and unstructuring functions and register
them for types using Converter.register_structure_hook()
and
Converter.register_unstructure_hook()
. This approach is the most
flexible but also requires the most amount of boilerplate.
Using cattrs.gen
Generators#
cattrs includes a module, cattrs.gen
, which allows for generating and compiling specialized functions for unstructuring attrs classes.
One reason for generating these functions in advance is that they can bypass a lot of cattrs machinery and be significantly faster than normal cattrs.
Another reason is that it’s possible to override behavior on a per-attribute basis.
Currently, the overrides only support generating dictionary un/structuring functions (as opposed to tuples), and support omit_if_default
, forbid_extra_keys
, rename
and omit
.
omit_if_default
#
This override can be applied on a per-class or per-attribute basis. The generated unstructuring function will skip unstructuring values that are equal to their default or factory values.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override
>>>
>>> @define
... class WithDefault:
... a: int
... b: dict = Factory(dict)
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(WithDefault, make_dict_unstructure_fn(WithDefault, c, b=override(omit_if_default=True)))
>>> c.unstructure(WithDefault(1))
{'a': 1}
Note that the per-attribute value overrides the per-class value. A side-effect
of this is the ability to force the presence of a subset of fields.
For example, consider a class with a DateTime
field and a factory for it:
skipping the unstructuring of the DateTime
field would be inconsistent and
based on the current time. So we apply the omit_if_default
rule to the class,
but not to the DateTime
field.
Note
The parameter to `make_dict_unstructure_function` is named ``_cattrs_omit_if_default`` instead of just ``omit_if_default`` to avoid potential collisions with an override for a field named ``omit_if_default``.
>>> from pendulum import DateTime
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override
>>>
>>> @define
... class TestClass:
... a: Optional[int] = None
... b: DateTime = Factory(DateTime.utcnow)
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(TestClass, c, _cattrs_omit_if_default=True, b=override(omit_if_default=False))
>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(TestClass, hook)
>>> c.unstructure(TestClass())
{'b': ...}
This override has no effect when generating structuring functions.
forbid_extra_keys
#
By default cattrs is lenient in accepting unstructured input.
If extra keys are present in a dictionary, they will be ignored when generating a structured object.
Sometimes it may be desirable to enforce a stricter contract, and to raise an error when unknown keys are present - in particular when fields have default values this may help with catching typos.
forbid_extra_keys
can also be enabled (or disabled) on a per-class basis when creating structure hooks with make_dict_structure_fn()
.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn
>>>
>>> @define
... class TestClass:
... number: int = 1
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter(forbid_extra_keys=True)
>>> c.structure({"nummber": 2}, TestClass)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ForbiddenExtraKeyError: Extra fields in constructor for TestClass: nummber
>>> hook = make_dict_structure_fn(TestClass, c, _cattrs_forbid_extra_keys=False)
>>> c.register_structure_hook(TestClass, hook)
>>> c.structure({"nummber": 2}, TestClass)
TestClass(number=1)
This behavior can only be applied to classes or to the default for the Converter
, and has no effect when generating unstructuring functions.
Changed in version 23.2.0: The value for the make_dict_structure_fn._cattrs_forbid_extra_keys
parameter is now taken from the given converter by default.
rename
#
Using the rename override makes cattrs
simply use the provided name instead
of the real attribute name. This is useful if an attribute name is a reserved
keyword in Python.
>>> from pendulum import DateTime
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, make_dict_structure_fn, override
>>>
>>> @define
... class ExampleClass:
... klass: Optional[int]
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> unst_hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(ExampleClass, c, klass=override(rename="class"))
>>> st_hook = make_dict_structure_fn(ExampleClass, c, klass=override(rename="class"))
>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(ExampleClass, unst_hook)
>>> c.register_structure_hook(ExampleClass, st_hook)
>>> c.unstructure(ExampleClass(1))
{'class': 1}
>>> c.structure({'class': 1}, ExampleClass)
ExampleClass(klass=1)
omit
#
This override can only be applied to individual attributes.
Using the omit
override will simply skip the attribute completely when generating a structuring or unstructuring function.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override
>>>
>>> @define
... class ExampleClass:
... an_int: int
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> unst_hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(ExampleClass, c, an_int=override(omit=True))
>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(ExampleClass, unst_hook)
>>> c.unstructure(ExampleClass(1))
{}
struct_hook
and unstruct_hook
#
By default, the generators will determine the right un/structure hook for each attribute of a class at time of generation according to the type of each individual attribute.
This process can be overriden by passing in the desired un/structure manually.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn, override
>>> @define
... class ExampleClass:
... an_int: int
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> st_hook = make_dict_structure_fn(
... ExampleClass, c, an_int=override(struct_hook=lambda v, _: v + 1)
... )
>>> c.register_structure_hook(ExampleClass, st_hook)
>>> c.structure({"an_int": 1}, ExampleClass)
ExampleClass(an_int=2)
use_alias
#
By default, fields are un/structured to and from dictionary keys exactly matching the field names.
attrs classes support field aliases, which override the __init__
parameter name for a given field.
By generating your un/structure function with _cattrs_use_alias=True
, cattrs will use the field alias instead of the field name as the un/structured dictionary key.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn
>>>
>>> @define
... class AliasClass:
... number: int = field(default=1, alias="count")
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> hook = make_dict_structure_fn(AliasClass, c, _cattrs_use_alias=True)
>>> c.register_structure_hook(AliasClass, hook)
>>> c.structure({"count": 2}, AliasClass)
AliasClass(number=2)
New in version 23.2.0.
include_init_false
#
By default, attrs fields defined as init=False
are skipped when un/structuring.
By generating your un/structure function with _cattrs_include_init_false=True
, all init=False
fields will be included for un/structuring.
>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn
>>>
>>> @define
... class ClassWithInitFalse:
... number: int = field(default=1, init=False)
>>>
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> hook = make_dict_structure_fn(ClassWithInitFalse, c, _cattrs_include_init_false=True)
>>> c.register_structure_hook(ClassWithInitFalse, hook)
>>> c.structure({"number": 2}, ClassWithInitFalse)
ClassWithInitFalse(number=2)
A single attribute can be included by overriding it with omit=False
.
>>> c = cattrs.Converter()
>>> hook = make_dict_structure_fn(ClassWithInitFalse, c, number=override(omit=False))
>>> c.register_structure_hook(ClassWithInitFalse, hook)
>>> c.structure({"number": 2}, ClassWithInitFalse)
ClassWithInitFalse(number=2)
New in version 23.2.0.