@property decorator

Just a quick blurb about a nice feature in Python.

Let's say you have the following:

class Person:
  def __init__(self, first_name, last_name):
    self.first_name = first_name
    self.last_name = last_name

You can create a new person like:

mickey = Person('Micky', 'Mouse')
# spoiler, he's not actually a person

You might find yourself often wanting to get Mickey's full name, "Mickey Mouse" in your code. To do this, you'll probably do:

fullname = mickey.first_name + ' ' + mickey.last_name
# or maybe you'll use format, or printf, 
# depending on your style and how much coffee you've had that day.

Then, after you get tired of doing that all the time, you'll go back and add a method to your Person class:

class Person:
  def __init__(self, first_name, last_name):
    self.first_name = first_name
    self.last_name = last_name

  def name(self):
    return self.first_name + ' ' + self.last_name

and you'll instead use:

mickey.name()
# ==> Mickey Mouse

now.. the @property decorator really just gives us a coding style advantage. mickey.name would feel more natural than mickey.name(), since the name is always returning the same value, and feels more like a property than a function.

So how is it used?

Again, let's modify the class:

class Person:
  def __init__(self, first_name, last_name):
    self.first_name = first_name
    self.last_name = last_name

  @property
  def name(self):
    return self.first_name + ' ' + self.last_name

Then, we can get the name as follows:

mickey.name
# ==> Mickey Mouse

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That's it for now! If you're interested in Python, Django, Linux, VIM, tmux (and all these other random tools in my tech stack) follow me on dev.to or on Twitter @connorbode.

I'll post tips as I code!