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<h1>Python Enhancement Proposals</h1>
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<section id="pep-content">
<h1 class="page-title">PEP 557 Data Classes</h1>
<dl class="rfc2822 field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Author<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">Eric V. Smith &lt;eric&#32;&#97;t&#32;trueblade.com&gt;</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Status<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><abbr title="Accepted and implementation complete, or no longer active">Final</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Type<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><abbr title="Normative PEP with a new feature for Python, implementation change for CPython or interoperability standard for the ecosystem">Standards Track</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-even">Created<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even">02-Jun-2017</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Python-Version<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">3.7</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Post-History<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even">08-Sep-2017, 25-Nov-2017, 30-Nov-2017, 01-Dec-2017, 02-Dec-2017, 06-Jan-2018, 04-Mar-2018</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Resolution<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-December/151034.html">Python-Dev message</a></dd>
</dl>
<hr class="docutils" />
<section id="contents">
<details><summary>Table of Contents</summary><ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#notice-for-reviewers">Notice for Reviewers</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#field-objects"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#post-init-processing">post-init processing</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#class-variables">Class variables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#init-only-variables">Init-only variables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#frozen-instances">Frozen instances</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#inheritance">Inheritance</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#default-factory-functions">Default factory functions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mutable-default-values">Mutable default values</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#module-level-helper-functions">Module level helper functions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#discussion">Discussion</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#python-ideas-discussion">python-ideas discussion</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#support-for-automatically-setting-slots">Support for automatically setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code>?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-namedtuple">Why not just use namedtuple?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-typing-namedtuple">Why not just use typing.NamedTuple?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-attrs">Why not just use attrs?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#post-init-parameters">post-init parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#asdict-and-astuple-function-names">asdict and astuple function names</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rejected-ideas">Rejected ideas</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copying-init-false-fields-after-new-object-creation-in-replace">Copying <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields after new object creation in replace()</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#automatically-support-mutable-default-values">Automatically support mutable default values</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#custom-init-method">Custom __init__ method</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#a-complicated-example">A complicated example</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#references">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</details></section>
<section id="notice-for-reviewers">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#notice-for-reviewers" role="doc-backlink">Notice for Reviewers</a></h2>
<p>This PEP and the initial implementation were drafted in a separate
repo: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses</a>. Before commenting in
a public forum please at least read the <a class="reference internal" href="#discussion">discussion</a> listed at the
end of this PEP.</p>
</section>
<section id="abstract">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#abstract" role="doc-backlink">Abstract</a></h2>
<p>This PEP describes an addition to the standard library called Data
Classes. Although they use a very different mechanism, Data Classes
can be thought of as “mutable namedtuples with defaults”. Because
Data Classes use normal class definition syntax, you are free to use
inheritance, metaclasses, docstrings, user-defined methods, class
factories, and other Python class features.</p>
<p>A class decorator is provided which inspects a class definition for
variables with type annotations as defined in <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations">PEP 526</a>, “Syntax for
Variable Annotations”. In this document, such variables are called
fields. Using these fields, the decorator adds generated method
definitions to the class to support instance initialization, a repr,
comparison methods, and optionally other methods as described in the
<a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a> section. Such a class is called a Data Class, but
theres really nothing special about the class: the decorator adds
generated methods to the class and returns the same class it was
given.</p>
<p>As an example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">InventoryItem</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="sd">&#39;&#39;&#39;Class for keeping track of an item in inventory.&#39;&#39;&#39;</span>
<span class="n">name</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span>
<span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span>
<span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">total_cost</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="nb">float</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;dataclass</span></code> decorator will add the equivalent of these methods
to the InventoryItem class:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">name</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">unit_price</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__repr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="sa">f</span><span class="s1">&#39;InventoryItem(name=</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">, unit_price=</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">, quantity_on_hand=</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">)&#39;</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__eq__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__ne__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">!=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__lt__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">&lt;</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__le__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">&lt;=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__gt__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">&gt;</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__ge__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">&gt;=</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unit_price</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">other</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">quantity_on_hand</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">NotImplemented</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Data Classes save you from writing and maintaining these methods.</p>
</section>
<section id="rationale">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#rationale" role="doc-backlink">Rationale</a></h2>
<p>There have been numerous attempts to define classes which exist
primarily to store values which are accessible by attribute lookup.
Some examples include:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>collections.namedtuple in the standard library.</li>
<li>typing.NamedTuple in the standard library.</li>
<li>The popular attrs <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id15" id="id1">[1]</a> project.</li>
<li>George Sakkis recordType recipe <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id16" id="id2">[2]</a>, a mutable data type inspired
by collections.namedtuple.</li>
<li>Many example online recipes <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id17" id="id3">[3]</a>, packages <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id18" id="id4">[4]</a>, and questions <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id19" id="id5">[5]</a>.
David Beazley used a form of data classes as the motivating example
in a PyCon 2013 metaclass talk <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id20" id="id6">[6]</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, why is this PEP needed?</p>
<p>With the addition of <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations">PEP 526</a>, Python has a concise way to specify the
type of class members. This PEP leverages that syntax to provide a
simple, unobtrusive way to describe Data Classes. With two exceptions,
the specified attribute type annotation is completely ignored by Data
Classes.</p>
<p>No base classes or metaclasses are used by Data Classes. Users of
these classes are free to use inheritance and metaclasses without any
interference from Data Classes. The decorated classes are truly
“normal” Python classes. The Data Class decorator should not
interfere with any usage of the class.</p>
<p>One main design goal of Data Classes is to support static type
checkers. The use of <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations">PEP 526</a> syntax is one example of this, but so is
the design of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> function and the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;dataclass</span></code>
decorator. Due to their very dynamic nature, some of the libraries
mentioned above are difficult to use with static type checkers.</p>
<p>Data Classes are not, and are not intended to be, a replacement
mechanism for all of the above libraries. But being in the standard
library will allow many of the simpler use cases to instead leverage
Data Classes. Many of the libraries listed have different feature
sets, and will of course continue to exist and prosper.</p>
<p>Where is it not appropriate to use Data Classes?</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>API compatibility with tuples or dicts is required.</li>
<li>Type validation beyond that provided by PEPs 484 and 526 is
required, or value validation or conversion is required.</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="specification">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#specification" role="doc-backlink">Specification</a></h2>
<p>All of the functions described in this PEP will live in a module named
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclasses</span></code>.</p>
<p>A function <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> which is typically used as a class decorator
is provided to post-process classes and add generated methods,
described below.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> decorator examines the class to find <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field</span></code>s. A
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field</span></code> is defined as any variable identified in
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__annotations__</span></code>. That is, a variable that has a type annotation.
With two exceptions described below, none of the Data Class machinery
examines the type specified in the annotation.</p>
<p>Note that <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__annotations__</span></code> is guaranteed to be an ordered mapping,
in class declaration order. The order of the fields in all of the
generated methods is the order in which they appear in the class.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> decorator will add various “dunder” methods to the
class, described below. If any of the added methods already exist on the
class, a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code> will be raised. The decorator returns the same
class that is called on: no new class is created.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> decorator is typically used with no parameters and
no parentheses. However, it also supports the following logical
signature:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">dataclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">repr</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">eq</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">order</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">unsafe_hash</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">frozen</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> is used just as a simple decorator with no
parameters, it acts as if it has the default values documented in this
signature. That is, these three uses of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;dataclass</span></code> are equivalent:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
<span class="nd">@dataclass</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
<span class="nd">@dataclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">repr</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">eq</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">order</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">unsafe_hash</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">frozen</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The parameters to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> are:</p>
<ul>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init</span></code>: If true (the default), a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method will be
generated.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">repr</span></code>: If true (the default), a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__repr__</span></code> method will be
generated. The generated repr string will have the class name and
the name and repr of each field, in the order they are defined in
the class. Fields that are marked as being excluded from the repr
are not included. For example:
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InventoryItem(name='widget',</span> <span class="pre">unit_price=3.0,</span> <span class="pre">quantity_on_hand=10)</span></code>.<p>If the class already defines <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__repr__</span></code>, this parameter is
ignored.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code>: If true (the default), an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code> method will be
generated. This method compares the class as if it were a tuple of its
fields, in order. Both instances in the comparison must be of the
identical type.<p>If the class already defines <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code>, this parameter is ignored.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">order</span></code>: If true (the default is False), <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__lt__</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__le__</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__gt__</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__ge__</span></code> methods will be generated. These compare
the class as if it were a tuple of its fields, in order. Both
instances in the comparison must be of the identical type. If
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">order</span></code> is true and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code> is false, a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> is raised.<p>If the class already defines any of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__lt__</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__le__</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__gt__</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__ge__</span></code>, then <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> is raised.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unsafe_hash</span></code>: If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code> (the default), the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> method
is generated according to how <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen</span></code> are set.<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen</span></code> are both true, Data Classes will generate a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> method for you. If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code> is true and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen</span></code> is
false, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> will be set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>, marking it unhashable
(which it is). If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">eq</span></code> is false, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> will be left
untouched meaning the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> method of the superclass will be
used (if the superclass is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code>, this means it will fall back
to id-based hashing).</p>
<p>Although not recommended, you can force Data Classes to create a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> method with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unsafe_hash=True</span></code>. This might be the
case if your class is logically immutable but can nonetheless be
mutated. This is a specialized use case and should be considered
carefully.</p>
<p>If a class already has an explicitly defined <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> the
behavior when adding <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is modified. An explicitly
defined <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is defined when:</p>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code> is defined in the class and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is defined
with any value other than <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code> is defined in the class and any non-<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is defined.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code> is not defined on the class, and any <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is
defined.</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unsafe_hash</span></code> is true and an explicitly defined <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code>
is present, then <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> is raised.</p>
<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unsafe_hash</span></code> is false and an explicitly defined <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code>
is present, then no <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> is added.</p>
<p>See the Python documentation <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id21" id="id7">[7]</a> for more information.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen</span></code>: If true (the default is False), assigning to fields will
generate an exception. This emulates read-only frozen instances.
If either <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__getattr__</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> is defined in the
class, then <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> is raised. See the discussion below.</li>
</ul>
<p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field</span></code>s may optionally specify a default value, using normal
Python syntax:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="c1"># &#39;a&#39; has no default value</span>
<span class="n">b</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span> <span class="c1"># assign a default value for &#39;b&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In this example, both <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">a</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">b</span></code> will be included in the added
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method, which will be defined as:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">a</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">):</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code> will be raised if a field without a default value
follows a field with a default value. This is true either when this
occurs in a single class, or as a result of class inheritance.</p>
<p>For common and simple use cases, no other functionality is required.
There are, however, some Data Class features that require additional
per-field information. To satisfy this need for additional
information, you can replace the default field value with a call to
the provided <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field()</span></code> function. The signature of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field()</span></code> is:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">default</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">MISSING</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">MISSING</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">repr</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="nb">hash</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">compare</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">metadata</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MISSING</span></code> value is a sentinel object used to detect if the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code> parameters are provided. This
sentinel is used because <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> is a valid value for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code>.</p>
<p>The parameters to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field()</span></code> are:</p>
<ul>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code>: If provided, this will be the default value for this
field. This is needed because the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field</span></code> call itself replaces
the normal position of the default value.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code>: If provided, it must be a zero-argument
callable that will be called when a default value is needed for this
field. Among other purposes, this can be used to specify fields
with mutable default values, as discussed below. It is an error to
specify both <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code>.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init</span></code>: If true (the default), this field is included as a
parameter to the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">repr</span></code>: If true (the default), this field is included in the
string returned by the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__repr__</span></code> method.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compare</span></code>: If True (the default), this field is included in the
generated equality and comparison methods (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__eq__</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__gt__</span></code>,
et al.).</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">hash</span></code>: This can be a bool or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>. If True, this field is
included in the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__hash__</span></code> method. If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> (the
default), use the value of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compare</span></code>: this would normally be the
expected behavior. A field should be considered in the hash if
its used for comparisons. Setting this value to anything other
than <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> is discouraged.<p>One possible reason to set <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">hash=False</span></code> but <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compare=True</span></code> would
be if a field is expensive to compute a hash value for, that field
is needed for equality testing, and there are other fields that
contribute to the types hash value. Even if a field is excluded
from the hash, it will still be used for comparisons.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">metadata</span></code>: This can be a mapping or None. None is treated as an
empty dict. This value is wrapped in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">types.MappingProxyType</span></code> to
make it read-only, and exposed on the Field object. It is not used
at all by Data Classes, and is provided as a third-party extension
mechanism. Multiple third-parties can each have their own key, to
use as a namespace in the metadata.</li>
</ul>
<p>If the default value of a field is specified by a call to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field()</span></code>,
then the class attribute for this field will be replaced by the
specified <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code> value. If no <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code> is provided, then the
class attribute will be deleted. The intent is that after the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> decorator runs, the class attributes will all contain
the default values for the fields, just as if the default value itself
were specified. For example, after:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="n">y</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">repr</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">z</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">repr</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">default</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">t</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">20</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The class attribute <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C.z</span></code> will be <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">10</span></code>, the class attribute
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C.t</span></code> will be <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">20</span></code>, and the class attributes <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C.x</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C.y</span></code>
will not be set.</p>
<section id="field-objects">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#field-objects" role="doc-backlink"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects</a></h3>
<p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects describe each defined field. These objects are
created internally, and are returned by the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> module-level
method (see below). Users should never instantiate a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code>
object directly. Its documented attributes are:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">name</span></code>: The name of the field.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code>: The type of the field.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">repr</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">hash</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compare</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">metadata</span></code> have the identical meaning and values
as they do in the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">field()</span></code> declaration.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other attributes may exist, but they are private and must not be
inspected or relied on.</p>
</section>
<section id="post-init-processing">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#post-init-processing" role="doc-backlink">post-init processing</a></h3>
<p>The generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> code will call a method named
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code>, if it is defined on the class. It will be called
as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">self.__post_init__()</span></code>. If no <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method is generated,
then <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> will not automatically be called.</p>
<p>Among other uses, this allows for initializing field values that
depend on one or more other fields. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span>
<span class="n">b</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span>
<span class="n">c</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">__post_init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">a</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">b</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See the section below on init-only variables for ways to pass
parameters to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__()</span></code>. Also see the warning about how
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace()</span></code> handles <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields.</p>
</section>
<section id="class-variables">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#class-variables" role="doc-backlink">Class variables</a></h3>
<p>One place where <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> actually inspects the type of a field is
to determine if a field is a class variable as defined in <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations">PEP 526</a>. It
does this by checking if the type of the field is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">typing.ClassVar</span></code>.
If a field is a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ClassVar</span></code>, it is excluded from consideration as a
field and is ignored by the Data Class mechanisms. For more
discussion, see <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id22" id="id8">[8]</a>. Such <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ClassVar</span></code> pseudo-fields are not
returned by the module-level <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> function.</p>
</section>
<section id="init-only-variables">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#init-only-variables" role="doc-backlink">Init-only variables</a></h3>
<p>The other place where <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> inspects a type annotation is to
determine if a field is an init-only variable. It does this by seeing
if the type of a field is of type <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclasses.InitVar</span></code>. If a field
is an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code>, it is considered a pseudo-field called an init-only
field. As it is not a true field, it is not returned by the
module-level <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> function. Init-only fields are added as
parameters to the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method, and are passed to
the optional <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> method. They are not otherwise used
by Data Classes.</p>
<p>For example, suppose a field will be initialized from a database, if a
value is not provided when creating the class:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">i</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="n">j</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="kc">None</span>
<span class="n">database</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">InitVar</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">DatabaseType</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="kc">None</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">__post_init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">database</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">j</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="kc">None</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="n">database</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">j</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">database</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">lookup</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;j&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">database</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">my_database</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In this case, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> will return <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">i</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">j</span></code>, but not for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">database</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="frozen-instances">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#frozen-instances" role="doc-backlink">Frozen instances</a></h3>
<p>It is not possible to create truly immutable Python objects. However,
by passing <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen=True</span></code> to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;dataclass</span></code> decorator you can
emulate immutability. In that case, Data Classes will add
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__setattr__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__delattr__</span></code> methods to the class. These
methods will raise a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">FrozenInstanceError</span></code> when invoked.</p>
<p>There is a tiny performance penalty when using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">frozen=True</span></code>:
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> cannot use simple assignment to initialize fields, and
must use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object.__setattr__</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="inheritance">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#inheritance" role="doc-backlink">Inheritance</a></h3>
<p>When the Data Class is being created by the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;dataclass</span></code> decorator,
it looks through all of the classs base classes in reverse MRO (that
is, starting at <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">object</span></code>) and, for each Data Class that it finds,
adds the fields from that base class to an ordered mapping of fields.
After all of the base class fields are added, it adds its own fields
to the ordered mapping. All of the generated methods will use this
combined, calculated ordered mapping of fields. Because the fields
are in insertion order, derived classes override base classes. An
example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">Base</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Any</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">15.0</span>
<span class="n">y</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Base</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">z</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">10</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">15</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The final list of fields is, in order, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">x</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">y</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">z</span></code>. The final
type of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">x</span></code> is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">int</span></code>, as specified in class <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C</span></code>.</p>
<p>The generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C</span></code> will look like:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">z</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">):</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="default-factory-functions">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#default-factory-functions" role="doc-backlink">Default factory functions</a></h3>
<p>If a field specifies a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code>, it is called with zero
arguments when a default value for the field is needed. For example,
to create a new instance of a list, use:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">l</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">list</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If a field is excluded from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> (using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code>) and
the field also specifies <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">default_factory</span></code>, then the default factory
function will always be called from the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>
function. This happens because there is no other way to give the
field an initial value.</p>
</section>
<section id="mutable-default-values">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#mutable-default-values" role="doc-backlink">Mutable default values</a></h3>
<p>Python stores default member variable values in class attributes.
Consider this example, not using Data Classes:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">element</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="n">element</span>
<span class="n">o1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">o2</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">o1</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">o2</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">o1</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">o1</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">o2</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that the two instances of class <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C</span></code> share the same class
variable <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">x</span></code>, as expected.</p>
<p>Using Data Classes, <em>if</em> this code was valid:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">D</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">element</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="n">element</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>it would generate code similar to:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">D</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">x</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">x</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">add</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">element</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">+=</span> <span class="n">element</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">D</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">D</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This has the same issue as the original example using class <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">C</span></code>.
That is, two instances of class <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">D</span></code> that do not specify a value for
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">x</span></code> when creating a class instance will share the same copy of
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">x</span></code>. Because Data Classes just use normal Python class creation
they also share this problem. There is no general way for Data
Classes to detect this condition. Instead, Data Classes will raise a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code> if it detects a default parameter of type <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">list</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dict</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set</span></code>. This is a partial solution, but it does protect
against many common errors. See <a class="reference internal" href="#automatically-support-mutable-default-values">Automatically support mutable
default values</a> in the Rejected Ideas section for more details.</p>
<p>Using default factory functions is a way to create new instances of
mutable types as default values for fields:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">D</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">list</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">D</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="n">D</span><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="module-level-helper-functions">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#module-level-helper-functions" role="doc-backlink">Module level helper functions</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields(class_or_instance)</span></code>: Returns a tuple of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects
that define the fields for this Data Class. Accepts either a Data
Class, or an instance of a Data Class. Raises <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> if not
passed a Data Class or instance of one. Does not return
pseudo-fields which are <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ClassVar</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code>.</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">asdict(instance,</span> <span class="pre">*,</span> <span class="pre">dict_factory=dict)</span></code>: Converts the Data Class
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code> to a dict (by using the factory function
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dict_factory</span></code>). Each Data Class is converted to a dict of its
fields, as name:value pairs. Data Classes, dicts, lists, and tuples
are recursed into. For example:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">Point</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="n">y</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">l</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Point</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">p</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Point</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">20</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">asdict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;x&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;y&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">20</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="n">Point</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">Point</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)])</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">asdict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">c</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;l&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[{</span><span class="s1">&#39;x&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;y&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">},</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;x&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;y&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">}]}</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Raises <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code> if <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code> is not a Data Class instance.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">astuple(*,</span> <span class="pre">tuple_factory=tuple)</span></code>: Converts the Data Class
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code> to a tuple (by using the factory function
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tuple_factory</span></code>). Each Data Class is converted to a tuple of its
field values. Data Classes, dicts, lists, and tuples are recursed
into.<p>Continuing from the previous example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">astuple</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">p</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">20</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">astuple</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">c</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="p">([(</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)],)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Raises <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code> if <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code> is not a Data Class instance.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">make_dataclass(cls_name,</span> <span class="pre">fields,</span> <span class="pre">*,</span> <span class="pre">bases=(),</span> <span class="pre">namespace=None)</span></code>:
Creates a new Data Class with name <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cls_name</span></code>, fields as defined
in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields</span></code>, base classes as given in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">bases</span></code>, and initialized
with a namespace as given in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">namespace</span></code>. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields</span></code> is an
iterable whose elements are either <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">name</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(name,</span> <span class="pre">type)</span></code>, or
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(name,</span> <span class="pre">type,</span> <span class="pre">Field)</span></code>. If just <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">name</span></code> is supplied,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">typing.Any</span></code> is used for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code>. This function is not strictly
required, because any Python mechanism for creating a new class with
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__annotations__</span></code> can then apply the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dataclass</span></code> function to
convert that class to a Data Class. This function is provided as a
convenience. For example:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">C</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">make_dataclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;C&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="p">[(</span><span class="s1">&#39;x&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="s1">&#39;y&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;z&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">default</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">))],</span>
<span class="n">namespace</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;add_one&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">lambda</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">})</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Is equivalent to:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="n">y</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;typing.Any&#39;</span>
<span class="n">z</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">5</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">add_one</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="mi">1</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace(instance,</span> <span class="pre">**changes)</span></code>: Creates a new object of the same
type of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code>, replacing fields with values from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">changes</span></code>.
If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">instance</span></code> is not a Data Class, raises <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code>. If
values in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">changes</span></code> do not specify fields, raises <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></code>.<p>The newly returned object is created by calling the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>
method of the Data Class. This ensures that
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code>, if present, is also called.</p>
<p>Init-only variables without default values, if any exist, must be
specified on the call to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace</span></code> so that they can be passed to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code>.</p>
<p>It is an error for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">changes</span></code> to contain any fields that are
defined as having <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code>. A <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></code> will be raised
in this case.</p>
<p>Be forewarned about how <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields work during a call to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace()</span></code>. They are not copied from the source object, but
rather are initialized in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__()</span></code>, if theyre
initialized at all. It is expected that <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields will
be rarely and judiciously used. If they are used, it might be wise
to have alternate class constructors, or perhaps a custom
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace()</span></code> (or similarly named) method which handles instance
copying.</p>
</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">is_dataclass(class_or_instance)</span></code>: Returns True if its parameter
is a dataclass or an instance of one, otherwise returns False.<p>If you need to know if a class is an instance of a dataclass (and
not a dataclass itself), then add a further check for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">not</span>
<span class="pre">isinstance(obj,</span> <span class="pre">type)</span></code>:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">is_dataclass_instance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">obj</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">is_dataclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">obj</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="ow">not</span> <span class="nb">isinstance</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">obj</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">type</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</section>
</section>
<section id="discussion">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#discussion" role="doc-backlink">Discussion</a></h2>
<section id="python-ideas-discussion">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#python-ideas-discussion" role="doc-backlink">python-ideas discussion</a></h3>
<p>This discussion started on python-ideas <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id23" id="id9">[9]</a> and was moved to a GitHub
repo <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id24" id="id10">[10]</a> for further discussion. As part of this discussion, we made
the decision to use <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations">PEP 526</a> syntax to drive the discovery of fields.</p>
</section>
<section id="support-for-automatically-setting-slots">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#support-for-automatically-setting-slots" role="doc-backlink">Support for automatically setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code>?</a></h3>
<p>At least for the initial release, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code> will not be supported.
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code> needs to be added at class creation time. The Data
Class decorator is called after the class is created, so in order to
add <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code> the decorator would have to create a new class, set
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code>, and return it. Because this behavior is somewhat
surprising, the initial version of Data Classes will not support
automatically setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code>. There are a number of
workarounds:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Manually add <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code> in the class definition.</li>
<li>Write a function (which could be used as a decorator) that inspects
the class using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fields()</span></code> and creates a new class with
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code> set.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more discussion, see <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id25" id="id11">[11]</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="why-not-just-use-namedtuple">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#why-not-just-use-namedtuple" role="doc-backlink">Why not just use namedtuple?</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>Any namedtuple can be accidentally compared to any other with the
same number of fields. For example: <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Point3D(2017,</span> <span class="pre">6,</span> <span class="pre">2)</span> <span class="pre">==</span>
<span class="pre">Date(2017,</span> <span class="pre">6,</span> <span class="pre">2)</span></code>. With Data Classes, this would return False.</li>
<li>A namedtuple can be accidentally compared to a tuple. For example,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Point2D(1,</span> <span class="pre">10)</span> <span class="pre">==</span> <span class="pre">(1,</span> <span class="pre">10)</span></code>. With Data Classes, this would return
False.</li>
<li>Instances are always iterable, which can make it difficult to add
fields. If a library defines:<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">Time</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">namedtuple</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Time&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;hour&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;minute&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">get_time</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">Time</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">12</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Then if a user uses this code as:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">hour</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">minute</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">get_time</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>then it would not be possible to add a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">second</span></code> field to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Time</span></code>
without breaking the users code.</p>
</li>
<li>No option for mutable instances.</li>
<li>Cannot specify default values.</li>
<li>Cannot control which fields are used for <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__repr__</span></code>,
etc.</li>
<li>Cannot support combining fields by inheritance.</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="why-not-just-use-typing-namedtuple">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#why-not-just-use-typing-namedtuple" role="doc-backlink">Why not just use typing.NamedTuple?</a></h3>
<p>For classes with statically defined fields, it does support similar
syntax to Data Classes, using type annotations. This produces a
namedtuple, so it shares <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">namedtuple</span></code>s benefits and some of its
downsides. Data Classes, unlike <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">typing.NamedTuple</span></code>, support
combining fields via inheritance.</p>
</section>
<section id="why-not-just-use-attrs">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#why-not-just-use-attrs" role="doc-backlink">Why not just use attrs?</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>attrs moves faster than could be accommodated if it were moved in to
the standard library.</li>
<li>attrs supports additional features not being proposed here:
validators, converters, metadata, etc. Data Classes makes a
tradeoff to achieve simplicity by not implementing these
features.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more discussion, see <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id26" id="id12">[12]</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="post-init-parameters">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#post-init-parameters" role="doc-backlink">post-init parameters</a></h3>
<p>In an earlier version of this PEP before <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code> was added, the
post-init function <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> never took any parameters.</p>
<p>The normal way of doing parameterized initialization (and not just
with Data Classes) is to provide an alternate classmethod constructor.
For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">C</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">x</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">int</span>
<span class="nd">@classmethod</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">from_file</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">cls</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">fl</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">file_value</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">fl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file_value</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">c</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">C</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">from_file</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;file.txt&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Because the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> function is the last thing called in the
generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>, having a classmethod constructor (which can
also execute code immediately after constructing the object) is
functionally equivalent to being able to pass parameters to a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> function.</p>
<p>With <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code>s, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> functions can now take
parameters. They are passed first to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> which passes them
to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> where user code can use them as needed.</p>
<p>The only real difference between alternate classmethod constructors
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code> pseudo-fields is in regards to required non-field
parameters during object creation. With <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code>s, using
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> and the module-level <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">replace()</span></code> function <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code>s
must always be specified. Consider the case where a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">context</span></code>
object is needed to create an instance, but isnt stored as a field.
With alternate classmethod constructors the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">context</span></code> parameter is
always optional, because you could still create the object by going
through <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> (unless you suppress its creation). Which
approach is more appropriate will be application-specific, but both
approaches are supported.</p>
<p>Another reason for using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code> fields is that the class author
can control the order of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> parameters. This is especially
important with regular fields and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InitVar</span></code> fields that have default
values, as all fields with defaults must come after all fields without
defaults. A previous design had all init-only fields coming after
regular fields. This meant that if any field had a default value,
then all init-only fields would have to have defaults values, too.</p>
</section>
<section id="asdict-and-astuple-function-names">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#asdict-and-astuple-function-names" role="doc-backlink">asdict and astuple function names</a></h3>
<p>The names of the module-level helper functions <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">asdict()</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">astuple()</span></code> are arguably not <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0008/" title="PEP 8 Style Guide for Python Code">PEP 8</a> compliant, and should be
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">as_dict()</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">as_tuple()</span></code>, respectively. However, after
discussion <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id27" id="id13">[13]</a> it was decided to keep consistency with
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">namedtuple._asdict()</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">attr.asdict()</span></code>.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="rejected-ideas">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#rejected-ideas" role="doc-backlink">Rejected ideas</a></h2>
<section id="copying-init-false-fields-after-new-object-creation-in-replace">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#copying-init-false-fields-after-new-object-creation-in-replace" role="doc-backlink">Copying <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields after new object creation in replace()</a></h3>
<p>Fields that are <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> are by definition not passed to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>, but instead are initialized with a default value, or by
calling a default factory function in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code>, or by code in
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code>.</p>
<p>A previous version of this PEP specified that <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields
would be copied from the source object to the newly created object
after <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> returned, but that was deemed to be inconsistent
with using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> to initialize the new
object. For example, consider this case:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">Square</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">length</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span>
<span class="n">area</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">float</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">default</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.0</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">__post_init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">area</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">length</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">length</span>
<span class="n">s1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">Square</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">1.0</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">s2</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">replace</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">length</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">2.0</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields were copied from the source to the
destination object after <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__post_init__</span></code> is run, then s2 would end
up begin <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Square(length=2.0,</span> <span class="pre">area=1.0)</span></code>, instead of the correct
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Square(length=2.0,</span> <span class="pre">area=4.0)</span></code>.</p>
</section>
<section id="automatically-support-mutable-default-values">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#automatically-support-mutable-default-values" role="doc-backlink">Automatically support mutable default values</a></h3>
<p>One proposal was to automatically copy defaults, so that if a literal
list <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">[]</span></code> was a default value, each instance would get a new list.
There were undesirable side effects of this decision, so the final
decision is to disallow the 3 known built-in mutable types: list,
dict, and set. For a complete discussion of this and other options,
see <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id28" id="id14">[14]</a>.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="examples">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#examples" role="doc-backlink">Examples</a></h2>
<section id="custom-init-method">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#custom-init-method" role="doc-backlink">Custom __init__ method</a></h3>
<p>Sometimes the generated <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__init__</span></code> method does not suffice. For
example, suppose you wanted to have an object to store <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">*args</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">**kwargs</span></code>:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">ArgHolder</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">args</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Any</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Mapping</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Any</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">Any</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="n">args</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="o">**</span><span class="n">kwargs</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">args</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">args</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">kwargs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">kwargs</span>
<span class="n">a</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ArgHolder</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">three</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="a-complicated-example">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#a-complicated-example" role="doc-backlink">A complicated example</a></h3>
<p>This code exists in a closed source project:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">Application</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">name</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">requirements</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">constraints</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">path</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">&#39;&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">executable_links</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">executables_dir</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">()):</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">name</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">requirements</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">requirements</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">constraints</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{}</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">constraints</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="kc">None</span> <span class="k">else</span> <span class="n">constraints</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">path</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">executable_links</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">executable_links</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="kc">None</span> <span class="k">else</span> <span class="n">executable_links</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">executables_dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">executables_dir</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">additional_items</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[]</span>
<span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="fm">__repr__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="sa">f</span><span class="s1">&#39;Application(</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">name</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">requirements</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">constraints</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">executable_links</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">executables_dir</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">,</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">additional_items</span><span class="si">!r}</span><span class="s1">)&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This can be replaced by:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nd">@dataclass</span>
<span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">Application</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">name</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span>
<span class="n">requirements</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">Requirement</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">constraints</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Dict</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">dict</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">path</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="nb">str</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&#39;</span>
<span class="n">executable_links</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">executable_dir</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">Tuple</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">additional_items</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">List</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">field</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">init</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="kc">False</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">default_factory</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The Data Class version is more declarative, has less code, supports
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">typing</span></code>, and includes the other generated functions.</p>
</section>
</section>
<section id="acknowledgements">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#acknowledgements" role="doc-backlink">Acknowledgements</a></h2>
<p>The following people provided invaluable input during the development
of this PEP and code: Ivan Levkivskyi, Guido van Rossum, Hynek
Schlawack, Raymond Hettinger, and Lisa Roach. I thank them for their
time and expertise.</p>
<p>A special mention must be made about the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">attrs</span></code> project. It was a
true inspiration for this PEP, and I respect the design decisions they
made.</p>
</section>
<section id="references">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#references" role="doc-backlink">References</a></h2>
<aside class="footnote-list brackets">
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id15" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id15">[<a href="#id1">1</a>]</dt>
<dd>attrs project on github
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python-attrs/attrs">https://github.com/python-attrs/attrs</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id16" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id16">[<a href="#id2">2</a>]</dt>
<dd>George Sakkis recordType recipe
(<a class="reference external" href="http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576555-records/">http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576555-records/</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id17" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id17">[<a href="#id3">3</a>]</dt>
<dd>DictDotLookup recipe
(<a class="reference external" href="http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576586-dot-style-nested-lookups-over-dictionary-based-dat/">http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576586-dot-style-nested-lookups-over-dictionary-based-dat/</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id18" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id18">[<a href="#id4">4</a>]</dt>
<dd>attrdict package
(<a class="reference external" href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/attrdict">https://pypi.python.org/pypi/attrdict</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id19" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id19">[<a href="#id5">5</a>]</dt>
<dd>StackOverflow question about data container classes
(<a class="reference external" href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3357581/using-python-class-as-a-data-container">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3357581/using-python-class-as-a-data-container</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id20" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id20">[<a href="#id6">6</a>]</dt>
<dd>David Beazley metaclass talk featuring data classes
(<a class="reference external" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPiWg5jSoZI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPiWg5jSoZI</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id21" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id21">[<a href="#id7">7</a>]</dt>
<dd>Python documentation for __hash__
(<a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__hash__">https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#object.__hash__</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id22" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id22">[<a href="#id8">8</a>]</dt>
<dd><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0526/#class-and-instance-variable-annotations" title="PEP 526 Syntax for Variable Annotations § Class and instance variable annotations">ClassVar discussion in PEP 526</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id23" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id23">[<a href="#id9">9</a>]</dt>
<dd>Start of python-ideas discussion
(<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-May/045618.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/2017-May/045618.html</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id24" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id24">[<a href="#id10">10</a>]</dt>
<dd>GitHub repo where discussions and initial development took place
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id25" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id25">[<a href="#id11">11</a>]</dt>
<dd>Support __slots__?
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/28">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/28</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id26" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id26">[<a href="#id12">12</a>]</dt>
<dd>why not just attrs?
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/19">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/19</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id27" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id27">[<a href="#id13">13</a>]</dt>
<dd><a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0008/" title="PEP 8 Style Guide for Python Code">PEP 8</a> names for asdict and astuple
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/110">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/110</a>)</aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id28" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id28">[<a href="#id14">14</a>]</dt>
<dd>Copying mutable defaults
(<a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/3">https://github.com/ericvsmith/dataclasses/issues/3</a>)</aside>
</aside>
</section>
<section id="copyright">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#copyright" role="doc-backlink">Copyright</a></h2>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
</section>
</section>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>Source: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0557.rst">https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0557.rst</a></p>
<p>Last modified: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/commits/main/peps/pep-0557.rst">2023-09-09 17:39:29 GMT</a></p>
</article>
<nav id="pep-sidebar">
<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#notice-for-reviewers">Notice for Reviewers</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#specification">Specification</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#field-objects"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Field</span></code> objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#post-init-processing">post-init processing</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#class-variables">Class variables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#init-only-variables">Init-only variables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#frozen-instances">Frozen instances</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#inheritance">Inheritance</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#default-factory-functions">Default factory functions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mutable-default-values">Mutable default values</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#module-level-helper-functions">Module level helper functions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#discussion">Discussion</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#python-ideas-discussion">python-ideas discussion</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#support-for-automatically-setting-slots">Support for automatically setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__slots__</span></code>?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-namedtuple">Why not just use namedtuple?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-typing-namedtuple">Why not just use typing.NamedTuple?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-not-just-use-attrs">Why not just use attrs?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#post-init-parameters">post-init parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#asdict-and-astuple-function-names">asdict and astuple function names</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rejected-ideas">Rejected ideas</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copying-init-false-fields-after-new-object-creation-in-replace">Copying <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">init=False</span></code> fields after new object creation in replace()</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#automatically-support-mutable-default-values">Automatically support mutable default values</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#custom-init-method">Custom __init__ method</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#a-complicated-example">A complicated example</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#references">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
<br>
<a id="source" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0557.rst">Page Source (GitHub)</a>
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