Using property() on classmethods

Question

I have a class with two class methods (using the classmethod() function) for getting and setting what is essentially a static variable. I tried to use the property() functi

Answer 1

Here's a solution which should work for both access via the class and access via an instance which uses a metaclass.

In [1]: class ClassPropertyMeta(type):
   ...:     @property
   ...:     def prop(cls):
   ...:         return cls._prop
   ...:     def __new__(cls, name, parents, dct):
   ...:         # This makes overriding __getattr__ and __setattr__ in the class impossible, but should be fixable
   ...:         dct['__getattr__'] = classmethod(lambda cls, attr: getattr(cls, attr))
   ...:         dct['__setattr__'] = classmethod(lambda cls, attr, val: setattr(cls, attr, val))
   ...:         return super(ClassPropertyMeta, cls).__new__(cls, name, parents, dct)
   ...:

In [2]: class ClassProperty(object):
   ...:     __metaclass__ = ClassPropertyMeta
   ...:     _prop = 42
   ...:     def __getattr__(self, attr):
   ...:         raise Exception('Never gets called')
   ...:

In [3]: ClassProperty.prop
Out[3]: 42

In [4]: ClassProperty.prop = 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
 in ()
----> 1 ClassProperty.prop = 1

AttributeError: can't set attribute

In [5]: cp = ClassProperty()

In [6]: cp.prop
Out[6]: 42

In [7]: cp.prop = 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
 in ()
----> 1 cp.prop = 1

 in (cls, attr, val)
      6         # This makes overriding __getattr__ and __setattr__ in the class impossible, but should be fixable
      7         dct['__getattr__'] = classmethod(lambda cls, attr: getattr(cls, attr))
----> 8         dct['__setattr__'] = classmethod(lambda cls, attr, val: setattr(cls, attr, val))
      9         return super(ClassPropertyMeta, cls).__new__(cls, name, parents, dct)

AttributeError: can't set attribute

This also works with a setter defined in the metaclass.