Adding a Method to an Existing Object Instance

Question

I\'ve read that it is possible to add a method to an existing object (i.e., not in the class definition) in Python.

I understand that it\'s not always good to do so

Answer 1

from types import MethodType

def method(self):
   print 'hi!'


setattr( targetObj, method.__name__, MethodType(method, targetObj, type(method)) )

With this, you can use the self pointer

Answer 2

Consolidating Jason Pratt's and the community wiki answers, with a look at the results of different methods of binding:

Especially note how adding the binding function as a class method works, but the referencing scope is incorrect.

#!/usr/bin/python -u
import types
import inspect

## dynamically adding methods to a unique instance of a class


# get a list of a class's method type attributes
def listattr(c):
    for m in [(n, v) for n, v in inspect.getmembers(c, inspect.ismethod) if isinstance(v,types.MethodType)]:
        print m[0], m[1]

# externally bind a function as a method of an instance of a class
def ADDMETHOD(c, method, name):
    c.__dict__[name] = types.MethodType(method, c)

class C():
    r = 10 # class attribute variable to test bound scope

    def __init__(self):
        pass

    #internally bind a function as a method of self's class -- note that this one has issues!
    def addmethod(self, method, name):
        self.__dict__[name] = types.MethodType( method, self.__class__ )

    # predfined function to compare with
    def f0(self, x):
        print 'f0\tx = %d\tr = %d' % ( x, self.r)

a = C() # created before modified instnace
b = C() # modified instnace


def f1(self, x): # bind internally
    print 'f1\tx = %d\tr = %d' % ( x, self.r )
def f2( self, x): # add to class instance's .__dict__ as method type
    print 'f2\tx = %d\tr = %d' % ( x, self.r )
def f3( self, x): # assign to class as method type
    print 'f3\tx = %d\tr = %d' % ( x, self.r )
def f4( self, x): # add to class instance's .__dict__ using a general function
    print 'f4\tx = %d\tr = %d' % ( x, self.r )


b.addmethod(f1, 'f1')
b.__dict__['f2'] = types.MethodType( f2, b)
b.f3 = types.MethodType( f3, b)
ADDMETHOD(b, f4, 'f4')


b.f0(0) # OUT: f0   x = 0   r = 10
b.f1(1) # OUT: f1   x = 1   r = 10
b.f2(2) # OUT: f2   x = 2   r = 10
b.f3(3) # OUT: f3   x = 3   r = 10
b.f4(4) # OUT: f4   x = 4   r = 10


k = 2
print 'changing b.r from {0} to {1}'.format(b.r, k)
b.r = k
print 'new b.r = {0}'.format(b.r)

b.f0(0) # OUT: f0   x = 0   r = 2
b.f1(1) # OUT: f1   x = 1   r = 10  !!!!!!!!!
b.f2(2) # OUT: f2   x = 2   r = 2
b.f3(3) # OUT: f3   x = 3   r = 2
b.f4(4) # OUT: f4   x = 4   r = 2

c = C() # created after modifying instance

# let's have a look at each instance's method type attributes
print '\nattributes of a:'
listattr(a)
# OUT:
# attributes of a:
# __init__ <bound method C.__init__ of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FD88>>
# addmethod <bound method C.addmethod of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FD88>>
# f0 <bound method C.f0 of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FD88>>

print '\nattributes of b:'
listattr(b)
# OUT:
# attributes of b:
# __init__ <bound method C.__init__ of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>
# addmethod <bound method C.addmethod of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>
# f0 <bound method C.f0 of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>
# f1 <bound method ?.f1 of <class __main__.C at 0x000000000237AB28>>
# f2 <bound method ?.f2 of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>
# f3 <bound method ?.f3 of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>
# f4 <bound method ?.f4 of <__main__.C instance at 0x000000000230FE08>>

print '\nattributes of c:'
listattr(c)
# OUT:
# attributes of c:
# __init__ <bound method C.__init__ of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002313108>>
# addmethod <bound method C.addmethod of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002313108>>
# f0 <bound method C.f0 of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002313108>>

Personally, I prefer the external ADDMETHOD function route, as it allows me to dynamically assign new method names within an iterator as well.

def y(self, x):
    pass
d = C()
for i in range(1,5):
    ADDMETHOD(d, y, 'f%d' % i)
print '\nattributes of d:'
listattr(d)
# OUT:
# attributes of d:
# __init__ <bound method C.__init__ of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# addmethod <bound method C.addmethod of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# f0 <bound method C.f0 of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# f1 <bound method ?.y of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# f2 <bound method ?.y of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# f3 <bound method ?.y of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>
# f4 <bound method ?.y of <__main__.C instance at 0x0000000002303508>>

Answer 3

I find it strange that nobody mentioned that all of the methods listed above creates a cycle reference between the added method and the instance, causing the object to be persistent till garbage collection. There was an old trick adding a descriptor by extending the class of the object:

def addmethod(obj, name, func):
    klass = obj.__class__
    subclass = type(klass.__name__, (klass,), {})
    setattr(subclass, name, func)
    obj.__class__ = subclass

Answer 4

There are at least two ways for attach a method to an instance without types.MethodType:

>>> class A:
...  def m(self):
...   print 'im m, invoked with: ', self

>>> a = A()
>>> a.m()
im m, invoked with:  <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>
>>> a.m
<bound method A.m of <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>>
>>> 
>>> def foo(firstargument):
...  print 'im foo, invoked with: ', firstargument

>>> foo
<function foo at 0x978548c>

1:

>>> a.foo = foo.__get__(a, A) # or foo.__get__(a, type(a))
>>> a.foo()
im foo, invoked with:  <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>
>>> a.foo
<bound method A.foo of <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>>

2:

>>> instancemethod = type(A.m)
>>> instancemethod
<type 'instancemethod'>
>>> a.foo2 = instancemethod(foo, a, type(a))
>>> a.foo2()
im foo, invoked with:  <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>
>>> a.foo2
<bound method instance.foo of <__main__.A instance at 0x973ec6c>>

Useful links:
Data model - invoking descriptors
Descriptor HowTo Guide - invoking descriptors

Answer 5

This is actually an addon to the answer of "Jason Pratt"

Although Jasons answer works, it does only work if one wants to add a function to a class. It did not work for me when I tried to reload an already existing method from the .py source code file.

It took me for ages to find a workaround, but the trick seems simple... 1.st import the code from the source code file 2.nd force a reload 3.rd use types.FunctionType(...) to convert the imported and bound method to a function you can also pass on the current global variables, as the reloaded method would be in a different namespace 4.th now you can continue as suggested by "Jason Pratt" using the types.MethodType(...)

Example:

# this class resides inside ReloadCodeDemo.py
class A:
    def bar( self ):
        print "bar1"
        
    def reloadCode(self, methodName):
        ''' use this function to reload any function of class A'''
        import types
        import ReloadCodeDemo as ReloadMod # import the code as module
        reload (ReloadMod) # force a reload of the module
        myM = getattr(ReloadMod.A,methodName) #get reloaded Method
        myTempFunc = types.FunctionType(# convert the method to a simple function
                                myM.im_func.func_code, #the methods code
                                globals(), # globals to use
                                argdefs=myM.im_func.func_defaults # default values for variables if any
                                ) 
        myNewM = types.MethodType(myTempFunc,self,self.__class__) #convert the function to a method
        setattr(self,methodName,myNewM) # add the method to the function

if __name__ == '__main__':
    a = A()
    a.bar()
    # now change your code and save the file
    a.reloadCode('bar') # reloads the file
    a.bar() # now executes the reloaded code

Answer 6

What Jason Pratt posted is correct.

>>> class Test(object):
...   def a(self):
...     pass
... 
>>> def b(self):
...   pass
... 
>>> Test.b = b
>>> type(b)
<type 'function'>
>>> type(Test.a)
<type 'instancemethod'>
>>> type(Test.b)
<type 'instancemethod'>

As you can see, Python doesn't consider b() any different than a(). In Python all methods are just variables that happen to be functions.