Module contents¶

@dataclasses.dataclass(*,init=True,repr=True,eq=True,order=False,unsafe_hash=False,frozen=False,match_args=True,kw_only=False,slots=False,weakref_slot=False)¶

This function is adecorator that is used to add generatedspecial methods to classes, as described below.

The@dataclass decorator examines the class to findfields. Afield is defined as a class variable that has atype annotation. With twoexceptions described below, nothing in@dataclassexamines the type specified in the variable annotation.

The order of the fields in all of the generated methods is theorder in which they appear in the class definition.

The@dataclass decorator will add various “dunder” methods tothe class, described below. If any of the added methods alreadyexist in the class, the behavior depends on the parameter, as documentedbelow. The decorator returns the same class that it is called on; no newclass is created.

If@dataclass is used just as a simple decorator with no parameters,it acts as if it has the default values documented in thissignature. That is, these three uses of@dataclass areequivalent:

@dataclassclassC:...@dataclass()classC:...@dataclass(init=True,repr=True,eq=True,order=False,unsafe_hash=False,frozen=False,match_args=True,kw_only=False,slots=False,weakref_slot=False)classC:...

The parameters to@dataclass are:

• init: If true (the default), a__init__() method will begenerated.

  If the class already defines__init__(), this parameter isignored.

• repr: If true (the default), a__repr__() method will begenerated. The generated repr string will have the class name andthe name and repr of each field, in the order they are defined inthe class. Fields that are marked as being excluded from the reprare not included. For example:InventoryItem(name='widget',unit_price=3.0,quantity_on_hand=10).

  If the class already defines__repr__(), this parameter isignored.

• eq: If true (the default), an__eq__() method will begenerated. This method compares the class as if it were a tupleof its fields, in order. Both instances in the comparison mustbe of the identical type.

  If the class already defines__eq__(), this parameter isignored.

• order: If true (the default isFalse),__lt__(),__le__(),__gt__(), and__ge__() methods will begenerated. These compare the class as if it were a tuple of itsfields, in order. Both instances in the comparison must be of theidentical type. Iforder is true andeq is false, aValueError is raised.

  If the class already defines any of__lt__(),__le__(),__gt__(), or__ge__(), thenTypeError is raised.

• unsafe_hash: IfFalse (the default), a__hash__() methodis generated according to howeq andfrozen are set.

  __hash__() is used by built-inhash(), and when objects areadded to hashed collections such as dictionaries and sets. Having a__hash__() implies that instances of the class are immutable.Mutability is a complicated property that depends on the programmer’sintent, the existence and behavior of__eq__(), and the values oftheeq andfrozen flags in the@dataclass decorator.

  By default,@dataclass will not implicitly add a__hash__()method unless it is safe to do so. Neither will it add or change anexisting explicitly defined__hash__() method. Setting the classattribute__hash__=None has a specific meaning to Python, asdescribed in the__hash__() documentation.

  If__hash__() is not explicitly defined, or if it is set toNone,then@dataclassmay add an implicit__hash__() method.Although not recommended, you can force@dataclass to create a__hash__() method withunsafe_hash=True. This might be the caseif your class is logically immutable but can still be mutated.This is a specialized use case and should be considered carefully.

  Here are the rules governing implicit creation of a__hash__()method. Note that you cannot both have an explicit__hash__()method in your dataclass and setunsafe_hash=True; this will resultin aTypeError.

  Ifeq andfrozen are both true, by default@dataclass willgenerate a__hash__() method for you. Ifeq is true andfrozen is false,__hash__() will be set toNone, marking itunhashable (which it is, since it is mutable). Ifeq is false,__hash__() will be left untouched meaning the__hash__()method of the superclass will be used (if the superclass isobject, this means it will fall back to id-based hashing).

• frozen: If true (the default isFalse), assigning to fields willgenerate an exception. This emulates read-only frozen instances. If__setattr__() or__delattr__() is defined in the class, thenTypeError is raised. See the discussion below.

• match_args: If true (the default isTrue), the__match_args__ tuple will be created from the list ofnon keyword-only parameters to the generated__init__() method (even if__init__() is not generated, see above). If false, or if__match_args__ is already defined in the class, then__match_args__ will not be generated.

Added in version 3.10.

• kw_only: If true (the default value isFalse), then allfields will be marked as keyword-only. If a field is marked askeyword-only, then the only effect is that the__init__()parameter generated from a keyword-only field must be specifiedwith a keyword when__init__() is called. See theparameterglossary entry for details. Also see theKW_ONLY section.

  Keyword-only fields are not included in__match_args__.

Added in version 3.10.

• slots: If true (the default isFalse),__slots__ attributewill be generated and new class will be returned instead of the original one.If__slots__ is already defined in the class, thenTypeErroris raised.

Warning

Calling no-argsuper() in dataclasses usingslots=Truewill result in the following exception being raised:TypeError:super(type,obj):objmustbeaninstanceorsubtypeoftype.The two-argsuper() is a valid workaround.Seegh-90562 for full details.

Warning

Passing parameters to a base class__init_subclass__()when usingslots=True will result in aTypeError.Either use__init_subclass__ with no parametersor use default values as a workaround.Seegh-91126 for full details.

Added in version 3.10.

Changed in version 3.11:If a field name is already included in the__slots__of a base class, it will not be included in the generated__slots__to preventoverriding them.Therefore, do not use__slots__ to retrieve the field names of adataclass. Usefields() instead.To be able to determine inherited slots,base class__slots__ may be any iterable, butnot an iterator.

• weakref_slot: If true (the default isFalse), add a slotnamed “__weakref__”, which is required to make an instanceweakref-able.It is an error to specifyweakref_slot=Truewithout also specifyingslots=True.

Added in version 3.11.

fields may optionally specify a default value, using normalPython syntax:

@dataclassclassC:a:int# 'a' has no default valueb:int=0# assign a default value for 'b'

In this example, botha andb will be included in the added__init__() method, which will be defined as:

def__init__(self,a:int,b:int=0):

TypeError will be raised if a field without a default valuefollows a field with a default value. This is true whether thisoccurs in a single class, or as a result of class inheritance.

dataclasses.field(*,default=MISSING,default_factory=MISSING,init=True,repr=True,hash=None,compare=True,metadata=None,kw_only=MISSING)¶

For common and simple use cases, no other functionality isrequired. There are, however, some dataclass features thatrequire additional per-field information. To satisfy this need foradditional information, you can replace the default field valuewith a call to the providedfield() function. For example:

@dataclassclassC:mylist:list[int]=field(default_factory=list)c=C()c.mylist+=[1,2,3]

As shown above, theMISSING value is a sentinel object used todetect if some parameters are provided by the user. This sentinel isused becauseNone is a valid value for some parameters witha distinct meaning. No code should directly use theMISSING value.

The parameters tofield() are:

• default: If provided, this will be the default value for thisfield. This is needed because thefield() call itselfreplaces the normal position of the default value.

• default_factory: If provided, it must be a zero-argumentcallable that will be called when a default value is needed forthis field. Among other purposes, this can be used to specifyfields with mutable default values, as discussed below. It is anerror to specify bothdefault anddefault_factory.

• init: If true (the default), this field is included as aparameter to the generated__init__() method.

• repr: If true (the default), this field is included in thestring returned by the generated__repr__() method.

• hash: This can be a bool orNone. If true, this field isincluded in the generated__hash__() method. If false,this field is excluded from the generated__hash__().IfNone (the default), use the value ofcompare: this wouldnormally be the expected behavior, since a field should be includedin the hash if it’s used for comparisons. Setting this value to anythingother thanNone is discouraged.

  One possible reason to sethash=False butcompare=Truewould be if a field is expensive to compute a hash value for,that field is needed for equality testing, and there are otherfields that contribute to the type’s hash value. Even if a fieldis excluded from the hash, it will still be used for comparisons.

• compare: If true (the default), this field is included in thegenerated equality and comparison methods (__eq__(),__gt__(), et al.).

• metadata: This can be a mapping orNone.None is treated asan empty dict. This value is wrapped inMappingProxyType() to make it read-only, and exposedon theField object. It is not used at all by DataClasses, and is provided as a third-party extension mechanism.Multiple third-parties can each have their own key, to use as anamespace in the metadata.

• kw_only: If true, this field will be marked as keyword-only.This is used when the generated__init__() method’sparameters are computed.

  Keyword-only fields are also not included in__match_args__.

Added in version 3.10.

If the default value of a field is specified by a call tofield(), then the class attribute for this field will bereplaced by the specifieddefault value. Ifdefault is notprovided, then the class attribute will be deleted. The intent isthat after the@dataclass decorator runs, the classattributes will all contain the default values for the fields, justas if the default value itself were specified. For example,after:

@dataclassclassC:x:inty:int=field(repr=False)z:int=field(repr=False,default=10)t:int=20

The class attributeC.z will be10, the class attributeC.t will be20, and the class attributesC.x andC.y will not be set.

classdataclasses.Field¶

Field objects describe each defined field. These objectsare created internally, and are returned by thefields()module-level method (see below). Users should never instantiate aField object directly. Its documented attributes are:

• name: The name of the field.

• type: The type of the field.

• default,default_factory,init,repr,hash,compare,metadata, andkw_only have the identicalmeaning and values as they do in thefield() function.

Other attributes may exist, but they are private and must not beinspected or relied on.

classdataclasses.InitVar¶

InitVar[T] type annotations describe variables that areinit-only. Fields annotated withInitVarare considered pseudo-fields, and thus are neither returned by thefields() function nor used in any way except adding them asparameters to__init__() and an optional__post_init__().

dataclasses.fields(class_or_instance)¶

Returns a tuple ofField objects that define the fields for thisdataclass. Accepts either a dataclass, or an instance of a dataclass.RaisesTypeError if not passed a dataclass or instance of one.Does not return pseudo-fields which areClassVar orInitVar.

dataclasses.asdict(obj,*,dict_factory=dict)¶

Converts the dataclassobj to a dict (by using thefactory functiondict_factory). Each dataclass is convertedto a dict of its fields, asname:value pairs. dataclasses, dicts,lists, and tuples are recursed into. Other objects are copied withcopy.deepcopy().

Example of usingasdict() on nested dataclasses:

@dataclassclassPoint:x:inty:int@dataclassclassC:mylist:list[Point]p=Point(10,20)assertasdict(p)=={'x':10,'y':20}c=C([Point(0,0),Point(10,4)])assertasdict(c)=={'mylist':[{'x':0,'y':0},{'x':10,'y':4}]}

To create a shallow copy, the following workaround may be used:

{field.name:getattr(obj,field.name)forfieldinfields(obj)}

asdict() raisesTypeError ifobj is not a dataclassinstance.

dataclasses.astuple(obj,*,tuple_factory=tuple)¶

Converts the dataclassobj to a tuple (by using thefactory functiontuple_factory). Each dataclass is convertedto a tuple of its field values. dataclasses, dicts, lists, andtuples are recursed into. Other objects are copied withcopy.deepcopy().

Continuing from the previous example:

assertastuple(p)==(10,20)assertastuple(c)==([(0,0),(10,4)],)

To create a shallow copy, the following workaround may be used:

tuple(getattr(obj,field.name)forfieldindataclasses.fields(obj))

astuple() raisesTypeError ifobj is not a dataclassinstance.

dataclasses.make_dataclass(cls_name,fields,*,bases=(),namespace=None,init=True,repr=True,eq=True,order=False,unsafe_hash=False,frozen=False,match_args=True,kw_only=False,slots=False,weakref_slot=False,module=None)¶

Creates a new dataclass with namecls_name, fields as definedinfields, base classes as given inbases, and initializedwith a namespace as given innamespace.fields is aniterable whose elements are each eithername,(name,type),or(name,type,Field). If justname is supplied,typing.Any is used fortype. The values ofinit,repr,eq,order,unsafe_hash,frozen,match_args,kw_only,slots, andweakref_slot havethe same meaning as they do in@dataclass.

Ifmodule is defined, the__module__ attributeof the dataclass is set to that value.By default, it is set to the module name of the caller.

This function is not strictly required, because any Pythonmechanism for creating a new class with__annotations__ canthen apply the@dataclass function to convert that class toa dataclass. This function is provided as a convenience. Forexample:

C=make_dataclass('C',[('x',int),'y',('z',int,field(default=5))],namespace={'add_one':lambdaself:self.x+1})

Is equivalent to:

@dataclassclassC:x:inty:'typing.Any'z:int=5defadd_one(self):returnself.x+1

dataclasses.replace(obj,/,**changes)¶

Creates a new object of the same type asobj, replacingfields with values fromchanges. Ifobj is not a DataClass, raisesTypeError. If keys inchanges are notfield names of the given dataclass, raisesTypeError.

The newly returned object is created by calling the__init__()method of the dataclass. This ensures that__post_init__(), if present, is also called.

Init-only variables without default values, if any exist, must bespecified on the call toreplace() so that they can be passed to__init__() and__post_init__().

It is an error forchanges to contain any fields that aredefined as havinginit=False. AValueError will be raisedin this case.

Be forewarned about howinit=False fields work during a call toreplace(). They are not copied from the source object, butrather are initialized in__post_init__(), if they’reinitialized at all. It is expected thatinit=False fields willbe rarely and judiciously used. If they are used, it might be wiseto have alternate class constructors, or perhaps a customreplace() (or similarly named) method which handles instancecopying.

Dataclass instances are also supported by generic functioncopy.replace().

dataclasses.is_dataclass(obj)¶

ReturnTrue if its parameter is a dataclass (including subclasses of adataclass) or an instance of one, otherwise returnFalse.

If you need to know if a class is an instance of a dataclass (andnot a dataclass itself), then add a further check fornotisinstance(obj,type):

defis_dataclass_instance(obj):returnis_dataclass(obj)andnotisinstance(obj,type)

dataclasses.MISSING¶

A sentinel value signifying a missing default or default_factory.

dataclasses.KW_ONLY¶

A sentinel value used as a type annotation. Any fields after apseudo-field with the type ofKW_ONLY are marked askeyword-only fields. Note that a pseudo-field of typeKW_ONLY is otherwise completely ignored. This includes thename of such a field. By convention, a name of_ is used for aKW_ONLY field. Keyword-only fields signify__init__() parameters that must be specified as keywords whenthe class is instantiated.

In this example, the fieldsy andz will be marked as keyword-only fields:

@dataclassclassPoint:x:float_:KW_ONLYy:floatz:floatp=Point(0,y=1.5,z=2.0)

In a single dataclass, it is an error to specify more than onefield whose type isKW_ONLY.

Added in version 3.10.

exceptiondataclasses.FrozenInstanceError¶

Raised when an implicitly defined__setattr__() or__delattr__() is called on a dataclass which was defined withfrozen=True. It is a subclass ofAttributeError.

Post-init processing¶

dataclasses.__post_init__()¶

When defined on the class, it will be called by the generated__init__(), normally asself.__post_init__().However, if anyInitVar fields are defined, they will also bepassed to__post_init__() in the order they were defined in theclass. If no__init__() method is generated, then__post_init__() will not automatically be called.

Among other uses, this allows for initializing field values thatdepend on one or more other fields. For example:

@dataclassclassC:a:floatb:floatc:float=field(init=False)def__post_init__(self):self.c=self.a+self.b

The__init__() method generated by@dataclass does not call baseclass__init__() methods. If the base class has an__init__() methodthat has to be called, it is common to call this method in a__post_init__() method:

classRectangle:def__init__(self,height,width):self.height=heightself.width=width@dataclassclassSquare(Rectangle):side:floatdef__post_init__(self):super().__init__(self.side,self.side)

Note, however, that in general the dataclass-generated__init__() methodsdon’t need to be called, since the derived dataclass will take care ofinitializing all fields of any base class that is a dataclass itself.

See the section below on init-only variables for ways to passparameters to__post_init__(). Also see the warning about howreplace() handlesinit=False fields.

Class variables¶

One of the few places where@dataclass actually inspects the typeof a field is to determine if a field is a class variable as definedinPEP 526. It does this by checking if the type of the field istyping.ClassVar. If a field is aClassVar, it is excludedfrom consideration as a field and is ignored by the dataclassmechanisms. SuchClassVar pseudo-fields are not returned by themodule-levelfields() function.

Init-only variables¶

Another place where@dataclass inspects a type annotation is todetermine if a field is an init-only variable. It does this by seeingif the type of a field is of typeInitVar. If a fieldis anInitVar, it is considered a pseudo-field called an init-onlyfield. As it is not a true field, it is not returned by themodule-levelfields() function. Init-only fields are added asparameters to the generated__init__() method, and are passed tothe optional__post_init__() method. They are not otherwise usedby dataclasses.

For example, suppose a field will be initialized from a database, if avalue is not provided when creating the class:

@dataclassclassC:i:intj:int|None=Nonedatabase:InitVar[DatabaseType|None]=Nonedef__post_init__(self,database):ifself.jisNoneanddatabaseisnotNone:self.j=database.lookup('j')c=C(10,database=my_database)

In this case,fields() will returnField objects fori andj, but not fordatabase.

Frozen instances¶

It is not possible to create truly immutable Python objects. However,by passingfrozen=True to the@dataclass decorator you canemulate immutability. In that case, dataclasses will add__setattr__() and__delattr__() methods to the class. Thesemethods will raise aFrozenInstanceError when invoked.

There is a tiny performance penalty when usingfrozen=True:__init__() cannot use simple assignment to initialize fields, andmust useobject.__setattr__().

Inheritance¶

When the dataclass is being created by the@dataclass decorator,it looks through all of the class’s base classes in reverse MRO (thatis, starting atobject) and, for each dataclass 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 fieldsto the ordered mapping. All of the generated methods will use thiscombined, calculated ordered mapping of fields. Because the fieldsare in insertion order, derived classes override base classes. Anexample:

@dataclassclassBase:x:Any=15.0y:int=0@dataclassclassC(Base):z:int=10x:int=15

The final list of fields is, in order,x,y,z. The finaltype ofx isint, as specified in classC.

The generated__init__() method forC will look like:

def__init__(self,x:int=15,y:int=0,z:int=10):

Re-ordering of keyword-only parameters in__init__()¶

After the parameters needed for__init__() are computed, anykeyword-only parameters are moved to come after all regular(non-keyword-only) parameters. This is a requirement of howkeyword-only parameters are implemented in Python: they must comeafter non-keyword-only parameters.

In this example,Base.y,Base.w, andD.t are keyword-onlyfields, andBase.x andD.z are regular fields:

@dataclassclassBase:x:Any=15.0_:KW_ONLYy:int=0w:int=1@dataclassclassD(Base):z:int=10t:int=field(kw_only=True,default=0)

The generated__init__() method forD will look like:

def__init__(self,x:Any=15.0,z:int=10,*,y:int=0,w:int=1,t:int=0):

Note that the parameters have been re-ordered from how they appear inthe list of fields: parameters derived from regular fields arefollowed by parameters derived from keyword-only fields.

The relative ordering of keyword-only parameters is maintained in there-ordered__init__() parameter list.

Default factory functions¶

If afield() specifies adefault_factory, it is called withzero arguments when a default value for the field is needed. Forexample, to create a new instance of a list, use:

mylist:list=field(default_factory=list)

If a field is excluded from__init__() (usinginit=False)and the field also specifiesdefault_factory, then the defaultfactory function will always be called from the generated__init__() function. This happens because there is no otherway to give the field an initial value.

Mutable default values¶

Python stores default member variable values in class attributes.Consider this example, not using dataclasses:

classC:x=[]defadd(self,element):self.x.append(element)o1=C()o2=C()o1.add(1)o2.add(2)asserto1.x==[1,2]asserto1.xiso2.x

Note that the two instances of classC share the same classvariablex, as expected.

Using dataclasses,if this code was valid:

@dataclassclassD:x:list=[]# This code raises ValueErrordefadd(self,element):self.x.append(element)

it would generate code similar to:

classD:x=[]def__init__(self,x=x):self.x=xdefadd(self,element):self.x.append(element)assertD().xisD().x

This has the same issue as the original example using classC.That is, two instances of classD that do not specify a valueforx when creating a class instance will share the same copyofx. Because dataclasses just use normal Python classcreation they also share this behavior. There is no general wayfor Data Classes to detect this condition. Instead, the@dataclass decorator will raise aValueError if itdetects an unhashable default parameter. The assumption is that ifa value is unhashable, it is mutable. This is a partial solution,but it does protect against many common errors.

Using default factory functions is a way to create new instances ofmutable types as default values for fields:

@dataclassclassD:x:list=field(default_factory=list)assertD().xisnotD().x

Descriptor-typed fields¶

Fields that are assigneddescriptor objects as theirdefault value have the following special behaviors:

• The value for the field passed to the dataclass’s__init__() method ispassed to the descriptor’s__set__() method rather than overwriting thedescriptor object.

• Similarly, when getting or setting the field, the descriptor’s__get__() or__set__() method is called rather than returning oroverwriting the descriptor object.

• To determine whether a field contains a default value,@dataclasswill call the descriptor’s__get__() method using its class accessform:descriptor.__get__(obj=None,type=cls). If thedescriptor returns a value in this case, it will be used as thefield’s default. On the other hand, if the descriptor raisesAttributeError in this situation, no default value will beprovided for the field.

classIntConversionDescriptor:def__init__(self,*,default):self._default=defaultdef__set_name__(self,owner,name):self._name="_"+namedef__get__(self,obj,type):ifobjisNone:returnself._defaultreturngetattr(obj,self._name,self._default)def__set__(self,obj,value):setattr(obj,self._name,int(value))@dataclassclassInventoryItem:quantity_on_hand:IntConversionDescriptor=IntConversionDescriptor(default=100)i=InventoryItem()print(i.quantity_on_hand)# 100i.quantity_on_hand=2.5# calls __set__ with 2.5print(i.quantity_on_hand)# 2

Note that if a field is annotated with a descriptor type, but is not assigneda descriptor object as its default value, the field will act like a normalfield.