Python Descriptors

This short book on Python descriptors is a collection of knowledge and ideas from many sources on dealing with and creating descriptors. And, after going through the things all descriptors have in common, the author explores ideas that have multiple ways of being implemented as well as completely new ideas never seen elsewhere before.

There aren’t many good resources out there for writing Python descriptors, and extremely few books. This is a sad state of affairs, as it makes it difficult for Python developers to get a really good understanding of how descriptors work and the techniques to avoid the big gotchas associated with working with them.

This truly is a comprehensive guide to creating Python descriptors. As a BONUS: A pip install-able library, descriptor_tools, was written alongside this book and is an open source library on GitHub.

What you’ll learn

• What is a descriptor protocol
• What is attribute access and how they apply to descriptors
• How to make descriptors and why
• Which Methods are needed
• How to store attributes
• How to do Read-Only Descriptors and Writing _delete()
• How to explore the descriptor classes
• How to apply the other uses of descriptors and more

Who is this book for

This book is for experienced Python coders, programmers and developers.

Table of Contents

Part I: About Descriptors
Chapter 1: What Is a Descriptor?
Chapter 2: The Descriptor Protocol
Chapter 3: What Are Descriptors Good For?
Chapter 4: Descriptors in the Standard Library
Chapter 5: Attribute Access and Descriptors

Part II: Making Descriptors
Chapter 6: Which Methods Are Needed?
Chapter 7: Storing the Attributes
Chapter 8: Read-Only Descriptors
Chapter 9: Writing __delete__()
Chapter 10: Descriptors are Classes Too
Chapter 11: Reusing the Wheel
Chapter 12: Other Uses of Descriptors in the World