Prevent creating new attributes outside __init__

Question

I want to be able to create a class (in Python) that once initialized with __init__, does not accept new attributes, but accepts modifications of existing attri

Answer 1

If someone is interested in doing that with a decorator, here is a working solution:

from functools import wraps

def froze_it(cls):
    cls.__frozen = False

    def frozensetattr(self, key, value):
        if self.__frozen and not hasattr(self, key):
            print("Class {} is frozen. Cannot set {} = {}"
                  .format(cls.__name__, key, value))
        else:
            object.__setattr__(self, key, value)

    def init_decorator(func):
        @wraps(func)
        def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
            func(self, *args, **kwargs)
            self.__frozen = True
        return wrapper

    cls.__setattr__ = frozensetattr
    cls.__init__ = init_decorator(cls.__init__)

    return cls

Pretty straightforward to use:

@froze_it 
class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.bar = 10

foo = Foo()
foo.bar = 42
foo.foobar = "no way"

Result:

>>> Class Foo is frozen. Cannot set foobar = no way

Answer 2

I wouldn't use __dict__ directly, but you can add a function to explicitly "freeze" a instance:

class FrozenClass(object):
    __isfrozen = False
    def __setattr__(self, key, value):
        if self.__isfrozen and not hasattr(self, key):
            raise TypeError( "%r is a frozen class" % self )
        object.__setattr__(self, key, value)

    def _freeze(self):
        self.__isfrozen = True

class Test(FrozenClass):
    def __init__(self):
        self.x = 42#
        self.y = 2**3

        self._freeze() # no new attributes after this point.

a,b = Test(), Test()
a.x = 10
b.z = 10 # fails

Answer 3

pystrict is a pypi installable decorator inspired by this stackoverflow question that can be used with classes to freeze them. There is an example to the README that shows why a decorator like this is needed even if you have mypy and pylint running on your project:

pip install pystrict

Then just use the @strict decorator:

from pystrict import strict

@strict
class Blah
  def __init__(self):
     self.attr = 1

Answer 4

Here is approach i came up with that doesn't need a _frozen attribute or method to freeze() in init.

During init i just add all class attributes to the instance.

I like this because there is no _frozen, freeze(), and _frozen also does not show up in the vars(instance) output.

class MetaModel(type):
    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        raise AttributeError("Model classes do not accept arbitrary attributes")

class Model(object):
    __metaclass__ = MetaModel

    # init will take all CLASS attributes, and add them as SELF/INSTANCE attributes
    def __init__(self):
        for k, v in self.__class__.__dict__.iteritems():
            if not k.startswith("_"):
                self.__setattr__(k, v)

    # setattr, won't allow any attributes to be set on the SELF/INSTANCE that don't already exist
    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        if not hasattr(self, name):
            raise AttributeError("Model instances do not accept arbitrary attributes")
        else:
            object.__setattr__(self, name, value)


# Example using            
class Dog(Model):
    name = ''
    kind = 'canine'

d, e = Dog(), Dog()
print vars(d)
print vars(e)
e.junk = 'stuff' # fails

Answer 5

I like the "Frozen" of Jochen Ritzel. The inconvenient is that the isfrozen variable then appears when printing a Class.__dict I went around this problem this way by creating a list of authorized attributes (similar to slots):

class Frozen(object):
    __List = []
    def __setattr__(self, key, value):
        setIsOK = False
        for item in self.__List:
            if key == item:
                setIsOK = True

        if setIsOK == True:
            object.__setattr__(self, key, value)
        else:
            raise TypeError( "%r has no attributes %r" % (self, key) )

class Test(Frozen):
    _Frozen__List = ["attr1","attr2"]
    def __init__(self):
        self.attr1   =  1
        self.attr2   =  1