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| 1 | +# Customizing class un/structuring |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This section deals with customizing the unstructuring and structuring processes in `cattrs`. |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +## Using `cattr.Converter` |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +The default `Converter`, upon first encountering an `attrs` class, will use |
| 8 | +the generation functions mentioned here to generate the specialized hooks for it, |
| 9 | +register the hooks and use them. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +## Manual un/structuring hooks |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +You can write your own structuring and unstructuring functions and register |
| 14 | +them for types using {meth}`Converter.register_structure_hook <cattrs.BaseConverter.register_structure_hook>` and |
| 15 | +{meth}`Converter.register_unstructure_hook <cattrs.BaseConverter.register_unstructure_hook>`. This approach is the most |
| 16 | +flexible but also requires the most amount of boilerplate. |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +## Using `cattrs.gen` generators |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +`cattrs` includes a module, {mod}`cattrs.gen`, which allows for generating and |
| 21 | +compiling specialized functions for unstructuring `attrs` classes. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +One reason for generating these functions in advance is that they can bypass |
| 24 | +a lot of `cattrs` machinery and be significantly faster than normal `cattrs`. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Another reason is that it's possible to override behavior on a per-attribute basis. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +Currently, the overrides only support generating dictionary un/structuring functions |
| 29 | +(as opposed to tuples), and support `omit_if_default`, `forbid_extra_keys`, |
| 30 | +`rename` and `omit`. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +### `omit_if_default` |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +This override can be applied on a per-class or per-attribute basis. The generated |
| 35 | +unstructuring function will skip unstructuring values that are equal to their |
| 36 | +default or factory values. |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +```{doctest} |
| 39 | +
|
| 40 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override |
| 41 | +>>> |
| 42 | +>>> @define |
| 43 | +... class WithDefault: |
| 44 | +... a: int |
| 45 | +... b: dict = Factory(dict) |
| 46 | +>>> |
| 47 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter() |
| 48 | +>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(WithDefault, make_dict_unstructure_fn(WithDefault, c, b=override(omit_if_default=True))) |
| 49 | +>>> c.unstructure(WithDefault(1)) |
| 50 | +{'a': 1} |
| 51 | +``` |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +Note that the per-attribute value overrides the per-class value. A side-effect |
| 54 | +of this is the ability to force the presence of a subset of fields. |
| 55 | +For example, consider a class with a `DateTime` field and a factory for it: |
| 56 | +skipping the unstructuring of the `DateTime` field would be inconsistent and |
| 57 | +based on the current time. So we apply the `omit_if_default` rule to the class, |
| 58 | +but not to the `DateTime` field. |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +```{note} |
| 61 | + The parameter to `make_dict_unstructure_function` is named ``_cattrs_omit_if_default`` instead of just ``omit_if_default`` to avoid potential collisions with an override for a field named ``omit_if_default``. |
| 62 | +``` |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +```{doctest} |
| 65 | +
|
| 66 | +>>> from pendulum import DateTime |
| 67 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override |
| 68 | +>>> |
| 69 | +>>> @define |
| 70 | +... class TestClass: |
| 71 | +... a: Optional[int] = None |
| 72 | +... b: DateTime = Factory(DateTime.utcnow) |
| 73 | +>>> |
| 74 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter() |
| 75 | +>>> hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(TestClass, c, _cattrs_omit_if_default=True, b=override(omit_if_default=False)) |
| 76 | +>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(TestClass, hook) |
| 77 | +>>> c.unstructure(TestClass()) |
| 78 | +{'b': ...} |
| 79 | +``` |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +This override has no effect when generating structuring functions. |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +### `forbid_extra_keys` |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +By default `cattrs` is lenient in accepting unstructured input. If extra |
| 86 | +keys are present in a dictionary, they will be ignored when generating a |
| 87 | +structured object. Sometimes it may be desirable to enforce a stricter |
| 88 | +contract, and to raise an error when unknown keys are present - in particular |
| 89 | +when fields have default values this may help with catching typos. |
| 90 | +`forbid_extra_keys` can also be enabled (or disabled) on a per-class basis when |
| 91 | +creating structure hooks with `make_dict_structure_fn`. |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +```{doctest} |
| 94 | + :options: +SKIP |
| 95 | +
|
| 96 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn |
| 97 | +>>> |
| 98 | +>>> @define |
| 99 | +... class TestClass: |
| 100 | +... number: int = 1 |
| 101 | +>>> |
| 102 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter(forbid_extra_keys=True) |
| 103 | +>>> c.structure({"nummber": 2}, TestClass) |
| 104 | +Traceback (most recent call last): |
| 105 | +... |
| 106 | +ForbiddenExtraKeyError: Extra fields in constructor for TestClass: nummber |
| 107 | +>>> hook = make_dict_structure_fn(TestClass, c, _cattrs_forbid_extra_keys=False) |
| 108 | +>>> c.register_structure_hook(TestClass, hook) |
| 109 | +>>> c.structure({"nummber": 2}, TestClass) |
| 110 | +TestClass(number=1) |
| 111 | +``` |
| 112 | + |
| 113 | +This behavior can only be applied to classes or to the default for the |
| 114 | +`Converter`, and has no effect when generating unstructuring functions. |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +### `rename` |
| 117 | + |
| 118 | +Using the rename override makes `cattrs` simply use the provided name instead |
| 119 | +of the real attribute name. This is useful if an attribute name is a reserved |
| 120 | +keyword in Python. |
| 121 | + |
| 122 | +```{doctest} |
| 123 | +
|
| 124 | +>>> from pendulum import DateTime |
| 125 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, make_dict_structure_fn, override |
| 126 | +>>> |
| 127 | +>>> @define |
| 128 | +... class ExampleClass: |
| 129 | +... klass: Optional[int] |
| 130 | +>>> |
| 131 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter() |
| 132 | +>>> unst_hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(ExampleClass, c, klass=override(rename="class")) |
| 133 | +>>> st_hook = make_dict_structure_fn(ExampleClass, c, klass=override(rename="class")) |
| 134 | +>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(ExampleClass, unst_hook) |
| 135 | +>>> c.register_structure_hook(ExampleClass, st_hook) |
| 136 | +>>> c.unstructure(ExampleClass(1)) |
| 137 | +{'class': 1} |
| 138 | +>>> c.structure({'class': 1}, ExampleClass) |
| 139 | +ExampleClass(klass=1) |
| 140 | +``` |
| 141 | + |
| 142 | +### `omit` |
| 143 | + |
| 144 | +This override can only be applied to individual attributes. Using the `omit` |
| 145 | +override will simply skip the attribute completely when generating a structuring |
| 146 | +or unstructuring function. |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | +```{doctest} |
| 149 | +
|
| 150 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_unstructure_fn, override |
| 151 | +>>> |
| 152 | +>>> @define |
| 153 | +... class ExampleClass: |
| 154 | +... an_int: int |
| 155 | +>>> |
| 156 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter() |
| 157 | +>>> unst_hook = make_dict_unstructure_fn(ExampleClass, c, an_int=override(omit=True)) |
| 158 | +>>> c.register_unstructure_hook(ExampleClass, unst_hook) |
| 159 | +>>> c.unstructure(ExampleClass(1)) |
| 160 | +{} |
| 161 | +``` |
| 162 | + |
| 163 | +### `struct_hook` and `unstruct_hook` |
| 164 | + |
| 165 | +By default, the generators will determine the right un/structure hook for each attribute of a class at time of generation according to the type of each individual attribute. |
| 166 | + |
| 167 | +This process can be overriden by passing in the desired un/structure manually. |
| 168 | + |
| 169 | +```{doctest} |
| 170 | +
|
| 171 | +>>> from cattrs.gen import make_dict_structure_fn, override |
| 172 | +
|
| 173 | +>>> @define |
| 174 | +... class ExampleClass: |
| 175 | +... an_int: int |
| 176 | +
|
| 177 | +>>> c = cattrs.Converter() |
| 178 | +>>> st_hook = make_dict_structure_fn( |
| 179 | +... ExampleClass, c, an_int=override(struct_hook=lambda v, _: v + 1) |
| 180 | +... ) |
| 181 | +>>> c.register_structure_hook(ExampleClass, st_hook) |
| 182 | +
|
| 183 | +>>> c.structure({"an_int": 1}, ExampleClass) |
| 184 | +ExampleClass(an_int=2) |
| 185 | +``` |
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