Alan Ristow wrote:
I would like to have three classes, ClassA, ClassB, and ClassC, that are 
essentially the same, the only difference being that each class has a 
different range of valid values for its properties. Thus, the obvious 
solution is to create a base class, then subclass from that and include 
the required error-checking during initialization and when property 
values change. The base class might look something like this:
[...]
However, instead of rewriting my validation code in several different 
places, I would prefer to write it one time and keep it in one place. I 
can write a function or method that I call each time I need to do 
validation, which is the approach I would take in most languages. 
However, since I am basically writing several small variations on one 
theme, it seems like in Python this might be an ideal application for 
decorators and/or metaclasses.
So my question is, what is the most sensible way to write a set of 
classes such as these in Python? I am not afraid to experiment with 
decorators or metaclasses -- indeed, I would love to learn more about 
them -- but in this particular project I do not want to use them just 
for the sake of learning to use them. If there is a good reason to use 
them, I am all for it, though.
All advice appreciated,

Thanks,

Alan

There's probably a number of ways to do it, but Descriptors spring to mind:


class x_validator(object):

    def __get__(self, instance, cls):
        return instance._x

    def __set__(self, instance, val):
        if instance.is_valid_x(val):
            instance._x = val
        else:
            raise ValueError("'%s' is an invalid value for 'x'" % val)

class Base(object):

    _x = None
    x = x_validator()

    def __init__(self, x):
        self.x = x

class A(Base):

    def is_valid_x(self, val):
        return val < 10

class B(Base):

    def is_valid_x(self, val):
        return val > 0


a = A(2)

print(a.x)
print(a._x)

a.x = 12

b = B(-2)


(you might not want to define _x at the class-level).

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