How can I represent an 'Enum' in Python?

Answer 1

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).