What is the correct (or best) way to subclass the Python set class, adding a new instance variable?

Question

I\'m implementing an object that is almost identical to a set, but requires an extra instance variable, so I am subclassing the built-in set object. What is the best way to

Answer 1

My favorite way to wrap methods of a built-in collection:

class Fooset(set):
    def __init__(self, s=(), foo=None):
        super(Fooset,self).__init__(s)
        if foo is None and hasattr(s, 'foo'):
            foo = s.foo
        self.foo = foo



    @classmethod
    def _wrap_methods(cls, names):
        def wrap_method_closure(name):
            def inner(self, *args):
                result = getattr(super(cls, self), name)(*args)
                if isinstance(result, set) and not hasattr(result, 'foo'):
                    result = cls(result, foo=self.foo)
                return result
            inner.fn_name = name
            setattr(cls, name, inner)
        for name in names:
            wrap_method_closure(name)

Fooset._wrap_methods(['__ror__', 'difference_update', '__isub__', 
    'symmetric_difference', '__rsub__', '__and__', '__rand__', 'intersection',
    'difference', '__iand__', 'union', '__ixor__', 
    'symmetric_difference_update', '__or__', 'copy', '__rxor__',
    'intersection_update', '__xor__', '__ior__', '__sub__',
])

Essentially the same thing you're doing in your own answer, but with fewer loc. It's also easy to put in a metaclass if you want to do the same thing with lists and dicts as well.