How do I create a constant in Python?

Question

Is there a way to declare a constant in Python? In Java we can create constant values in this manner:

public static          


        

Answer 1

I am trying different ways to create a real constant in Python and perhaps I found the pretty solution.

Example:

Create container for constants

>>> DAYS = Constants(
...     MON=0,
...     TUE=1,
...     WED=2,
...     THU=3,
...     FRI=4,
...     SAT=5,
...     SUN=6
... )   

Get value from container

>>> DAYS.MON
0
>>> DAYS['MON']
0  

Represent with pure python data structures

>>> list(DAYS)
['WED', 'SUN', 'FRI', 'THU', 'MON', 'TUE', 'SAT']
>>> dict(DAYS)
{'WED': 2, 'SUN': 6, 'FRI': 4, 'THU': 3, 'MON': 0, 'TUE': 1, 'SAT': 5}

All constants are immutable

>>> DAYS.MON = 7
...
AttributeError: Immutable attribute

>>> del DAYS.MON 
...
AttributeError: Immutable attribute

Autocomplete only for constants

>>> dir(DAYS)
['FRI', 'MON', 'SAT', 'SUN', 'THU', 'TUE', 'WED']

Sorting like list.sort

>>> DAYS.sort(key=lambda (k, v): v, reverse=True)
>>> list(DAYS)
['SUN', 'SAT', 'FRI', 'THU', 'WED', 'TUE', 'MON']

Copability with python2 and python3

Simple container for constants

from collections import OrderedDict
from copy import deepcopy

class Constants(object):
    """Container of constant"""

    __slots__ = ('__dict__')

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):

        if list(filter(lambda x: not x.isupper(), kwargs)):
            raise AttributeError('Constant name should be uppercase.')

        super(Constants, self).__setattr__(
            '__dict__',
            OrderedDict(map(lambda x: (x[0], deepcopy(x[1])), kwargs.items()))
        )

    def sort(self, key=None, reverse=False):
        super(Constants, self).__setattr__(
            '__dict__',
            OrderedDict(sorted(self.__dict__.items(), key=key, reverse=reverse))
        )

    def __getitem__(self, name):
        return self.__dict__[name]

    def __len__(self):
        return  len(self.__dict__)

    def __iter__(self):
        for name in self.__dict__:
            yield name

    def keys(self):
        return list(self)

    def __str__(self):
        return str(list(self))

    def __repr__(self):
        return '<%s: %s>' % (self.__class__.__name__, str(self.__dict__))

    def __dir__(self):
        return list(self)

    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        raise AttributeError("Immutable attribute")

    def __delattr__(*_):
        raise AttributeError("Immutable attribute")