How can I represent an 'Enum' in Python?

Answer 1

The new standard in Python is PEP 435, so an Enum class will be available in future versions of Python:

>>> from enum import Enum

However to begin using it now you can install the original library that motivated the PEP:

$ pip install flufl.enum

Then you can use it as per its online guide:

>>> from flufl.enum import Enum
>>> class Colors(Enum):
...     red = 1
...     green = 2
...     blue = 3
>>> for color in Colors: print color
Colors.red
Colors.green
Colors.blue

Answer 2

Here is one implementation:

class Enum(set):
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        if name in self:
            return name
        raise AttributeError

Here is its usage:

Animals = Enum(["DOG", "CAT", "HORSE"])

print(Animals.DOG)

Answer 3

I prefer to define enums in Python like so:

class Animal:
  class Dog: pass
  class Cat: pass

x = Animal.Dog

It's more bug-proof than using integers since you don't have to worry about ensuring that the integers are unique (e.g. if you said Dog = 1 and Cat = 1 you'd be screwed).

It's more bug-proof than using strings since you don't have to worry about typos (e.g. x == "catt" fails silently, but x == Animal.Catt is a runtime exception).

Answer 4

While the original enum proposal, PEP 354, was rejected years ago, it keeps coming back up. Some kind of enum was intended to be added to 3.2, but it got pushed back to 3.3 and then forgotten. And now there's a PEP 435 intended for inclusion in Python 3.4. The reference implementation of PEP 435 is flufl.enum.

As of April 2013, there seems to be a general consensus that something should be added to the standard library in 3.4—as long as people can agree on what that "something" should be. That's the hard part. See the threads starting here and here, and a half dozen other threads in the early months of 2013.

Meanwhile, every time this comes up, a slew of new designs and implementations appear on PyPI, ActiveState, etc., so if you don't like the FLUFL design, try a PyPI search.

Answer 5

Here is a variant on Alec Thomas's solution:

def enum(*args, **kwargs):
    return type('Enum', (), dict((y, x) for x, y in enumerate(args), **kwargs)) 

x = enum('POOH', 'TIGGER', 'EEYORE', 'ROO', 'PIGLET', 'RABBIT', 'OWL')
assert x.POOH == 0
assert x.TIGGER == 1

Answer 6

This solution is a simple way of getting a class for the enumeration defined as a list (no more annoying integer assignments):

enumeration.py:

import new

def create(class_name, names):
    return new.classobj(
        class_name, (object,), dict((y, x) for x, y in enumerate(names))
    )

example.py:

import enumeration

Colors = enumeration.create('Colors', (
    'red',
    'orange',
    'yellow',
    'green',
    'blue',
    'violet',
))