What's the pythonic way to use getters and setters?

Question

I\'m doing it like:

def set_property(property,value):  
def get_property(property):  

or

object.property = value  
value =         


        

Answer 1

Using @property and @attribute.setter helps you to not only use the "pythonic" way but also to check the validity of attributes both while creating the object and when altering it.

class Person(object):
    def __init__(self, p_name=None):
        self.name = p_name

    @property
    def name(self):
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, new_name):
        if type(new_name) == str: #type checking for name property
            self._name = new_name
        else:
            raise Exception("Invalid value for name")

By this, you actually 'hide' _name attribute from client developers and also perform checks on name property type. Note that by following this approach even during the initiation the setter gets called. So:

p = Person(12)

Will lead to:

Exception: Invalid value for name

But:

>>>p = person('Mike')
>>>print(p.name)
Mike
>>>p.name = 'George'
>>>print(p.name)
George
>>>p.name = 2.3 # Causes an exception