How can I detect duplicate method names in a Python class?

Question

When writing unit tests, I sometimes cut and paste a test and don't remember to change the method name. This results in overwriting the previous test, effectively hiding it and preventing it from running. For example;

class WidgetTestCase(unittest.TestCase):    def test_foo_should_do_some_behavior(self):     self.assertEquals(42, self.widget.foo())    def test_foo_should_do_some_behavior(self):     self.widget.bar()     self.assertEquals(314, self.widget.foo()) 

In this case, only the latter test would get called. Is there a way of programmatically catching this sort of error, short of parsing the raw source code directly?

Answer 1

If you run pylint over your code, it will inform you when you have overwritten another method:

For example, I ran this:

class A(object):     def blah(self):         print("Hello, World!")      def blah(self):         print("I give up!") 

In this online pylint checker. Besides all the missing docstrings and such, I get this:

E: 5:A.blah: method already defined line 2 

Alternatively, via the command line:

$ python -m pyflakes . .\blah.py:5:5 redefinition of unused 'blah' from line 2 

Answer 2

What follows is a horrible hack that uses undocumented, implementation-specific Python features. You should never ever ever do anything like this.

It's been tested on Python 2.6.1 and 2.7.2; doesn't seem to work with Python 3.2 as written, but then, you can do this right in Python 3.x anyway.

import sys  class NoDupNames(object):      def __init__(self):         self.namespaces = []      def __call__(self, frame, event, arg):         if event == "call":             if frame.f_code.co_flags == 66:                 self.namespaces.append({})         elif event in ("line", "return") and self.namespaces:             for key in frame.f_locals.iterkeys():                 if key in self.namespaces[-1]:                     raise NameError("attribute '%s' already declared" % key)              self.namespaces[-1].update(frame.f_locals)             frame.f_locals.clear()             if event == "return":                 frame.f_locals.update(self.namespaces.pop())         return self      def __enter__(self):         self.oldtrace = sys.gettrace()         sys.settrace(self)      def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):         sys.settrace(self.oldtrace) 

Usage:

with NoDupNames():     class Foo(object):         num = None         num = 42 

Result:

NameError: attribute 'num' already declared 

How it works: We hook up to the system trace hook. Each time Python is about to execute a line, we get called. This allows us to see what names were defined by the last statement executed. To make sure we can catch duplicates, we actually maintain our own local variable dictionary and clear out Python's after each line. At the end of the class definition, we copy our locals back into Python's. Some of the other tomfoolery is in there to handle nested class definitions and to handle multiple assignments in a single statement.

As a downside, our "clear ALL the locals!" approach means you can't do this:

with NoDupNames():     class Foo(object):         a = 6         b = 7         c = a * b 

Because as far as Python knows, there are no names a and b when c = a * b is executed; we cleared those as soon as we saw 'em. Also, if you assign the same variable twice in a single line (e.g., a = 0; a = 1) it won't catch that. However, it works for more typical class definitions.

Also, you should not put anything besides class definitions inside a NoDupNames context. I don't know what will happen; maybe nothing bad. But I haven't tried it, so in theory the universe could be sucked into its own plughole.

This is quite possibly the most evil code I have ever written, but it sure was fun!