How can I represent an 'Enum' in Python?

Answer 1

Hmmm... I suppose the closest thing to an enum would be a dictionary, defined either like this:

months = {
    'January': 1,
    'February': 2,
    ...
}

or

months = dict(
    January=1,
    February=2,
    ...
)

Then, you can use the symbolic name for the constants like this:

mymonth = months['January']

There are other options, like a list of tuples, or a tuple of tuples, but the dictionary is the only one that provides you with a "symbolic" (constant string) way to access the value.

Edit: I like Alexandru's answer too!

Answer 2

Keep it simple:

class Enum(object): 
    def __init__(self, tupleList):
            self.tupleList = tupleList

    def __getattr__(self, name):
            return self.tupleList.index(name)

Then:

DIRECTION = Enum(('UP', 'DOWN', 'LEFT', 'RIGHT'))
DIRECTION.DOWN
1

Answer 3

The best solution for you would depend on what you require from your fake enum.

Simple enum:

If you need the enum as only a list of names identifying different items, the solution by Mark Harrison (above) is great:

Pen, Pencil, Eraser = range(0, 3)

Using a range also allows you to set any starting value:

Pen, Pencil, Eraser = range(9, 12)

In addition to the above, if you also require that the items belong to a container of some sort, then embed them in a class:

class Stationery:
    Pen, Pencil, Eraser = range(0, 3)

To use the enum item, you would now need to use the container name and the item name:

stype = Stationery.Pen

Complex enum:

For long lists of enum or more complicated uses of enum, these solutions will not suffice. You could look to the recipe by Will Ware for Simulating Enumerations in Python published in the Python Cookbook. An online version of that is available here.

More info:

PEP 354: Enumerations in Python has the interesting details of a proposal for enum in Python and why it was rejected.

Answer 4

Alexandru's suggestion of using class constants for enums works quite well.

I also like to add a dictionary for each set of constants to lookup a human-readable string representation.

This serves two purposes: a) it provides a simple way to pretty-print your enum and b) the dictionary logically groups the constants so that you can test for membership.

class Animal:    
  TYPE_DOG = 1
  TYPE_CAT = 2

  type2str = {
    TYPE_DOG: "dog",
    TYPE_CAT: "cat"
  }

  def __init__(self, type_):
    assert type_ in self.type2str.keys()
    self._type = type_

  def __repr__(self):
    return "<%s type=%s>" % (
        self.__class__.__name__, self.type2str[self._type].upper())

Answer 5

I really like Alec Thomas' solution (http://stackoverflow.com/a/1695250):

def enum(**enums):
    '''simple constant "enums"'''
    return type('Enum', (object,), enums)

It's elegant and clean looking, but it's just a function that creates a class with the specified attributes.

With a little modification to the function, we can get it to act a little more 'enumy':

NOTE: I created the following examples by trying to reproduce the behavior of pygtk's new style 'enums' (like Gtk.MessageType.WARNING)

def enum_base(t, **enums):
    '''enums with a base class'''
    T = type('Enum', (t,), {})
    for key,val in enums.items():
        setattr(T, key, T(val))

    return T

This creates an enum based off a specified type. In addition to giving attribute access like the previous function, it behaves as you would expect an Enum to with respect to types. It also inherits the base class.

For example, integer enums:

>>> Numbers = enum_base(int, ONE=1, TWO=2, THREE=3)
>>> Numbers.ONE
1
>>> x = Numbers.TWO
>>> 10 + x
12
>>> type(Numbers)
<type 'type'>
>>> type(Numbers.ONE)
<class 'Enum'>
>>> isinstance(x, Numbers)
True

Another interesting thing that can be done with this method is customize specific behavior by overriding built-in methods:

def enum_repr(t, **enums):
    '''enums with a base class and repr() output'''
    class Enum(t):
        def __repr__(self):
            return '<enum {0} of type Enum({1})>'.format(self._name, t.__name__)

    for key,val in enums.items():
        i = Enum(val)
        i._name = key
        setattr(Enum, key, i)

    return Enum



>>> Numbers = enum_repr(int, ONE=1, TWO=2, THREE=3)
>>> repr(Numbers.ONE)
'<enum ONE of type Enum(int)>'
>>> str(Numbers.ONE)
'1'

Answer 6

def M_add_class_attribs(attribs):
    def foo(name, bases, dict_):
        for v, k in attribs:
            dict_[k] = v
        return type(name, bases, dict_)
    return foo

def enum(*names):
    class Foo(object):
        __metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs(enumerate(names))
        def __setattr__(self, name, value):  # this makes it read-only
            raise NotImplementedError
    return Foo()

Use it like this:

Animal = enum('DOG', 'CAT')
Animal.DOG # returns 0
Animal.CAT # returns 1
Animal.DOG = 2 # raises NotImplementedError

if you just want unique symbols and don't care about the values, replace this line:

__metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs(enumerate(names))

with this:

__metaclass__ = M_add_class_attribs((object(), name) for name in names)