How to redirect all methods of a contained class in Python?

Question

How to implement the composition pattern? I have a class Container which has an attribute object Contained. I would like to redirect/allow access to all methods of Contained class from Container by simply calling my_container.some_contained_method(). Am I doing the right thing in the right way?

I use something like:

class Container:
   def __init__(self):
       self.contained = Contained()
   def __getattr__(self, item):
       if item in self.__dict__: # some overridden
           return self.__dict__[item] 
       else:
           return self.contained.__getattr__(item) # redirection

Background:

I am trying to build a class (Indicator) that adds to the functionality of an existing class (pandas.DataFrame). Indicator will have all the methods of DataFrame. I could use inheritance, but I am following the "favor composition over inheritance" advice (see, e.g., the answers in: python: inheriting or composition). One reason not to inherit is because the base class is not serializable and I need to serialize.

I have found this, but I am not sure if it fits my needs.

Answer 1

Caveats:

• DataFrames have a lot of attributes. If a DataFrame attribute is a number, you probably just want to return that number. But if the DataFrame attribute is DataFrame you probably want to return a Container. What should we do if the DataFrame attribute is a Series or a descriptor? To implement Container.__getattr__ properly, you really have to write unit tests for each and every attribute.
• Unit testing is also needed for __getitem__.
• You'll also have to define and unit test __setattr__ and __setitem__, __iter__, __len__, etc.
• Pickling is a form of serialization, so if DataFrames are picklable, I'm not sure how Containers really help with serialization.

Some comments:

• __getattr__ is only called if the attribute is not in self.__dict__. So you do not need if item in self.__dict__ in your __getattr__.

• self.contained.__getattr__(item) calls self.contained's __getattr__ method directly. That is usually not what you want to do, because it circumvents the whole Python attribute lookup mechanism. For example, it ignores the possibility that the attribute could be in self.contained.__dict__, or in the __dict__ of one of the bases of self.contained.__class__ or if item refers to a descriptor. Instead use getattr(self.contained, item).

---

import pandas
import numpy as np

def tocontainer(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        return Container(result)
    return wrapper

class Container(object):
   def __init__(self, df):
       self.contained = df
   def __getitem__(self, item):
       result = self.contained[item]
       if isinstance(result, type(self.contained)):
           result = Container(result)
       return result
   def __getattr__(self, item):
       result = getattr(self.contained, item)
       if callable(result):
           result = tocontainer(result)
       return result
   def __repr__(self):
       return repr(self.contained)

Here is some random code to test if -- at least superficially -- Container delegates to DataFrames properly and returns Containers:

df = pandas.DataFrame(
    [(1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 1),(2,2,)], columns=['col1', 'col2'])
df = Container(df)
df['col1'][3] = 0
print(df)
#    col1  col2
# 0     1     2
# 1     1     3
# 2     1     4
# 3     2     1
# 4     2     2
gp = df.groupby('col1').aggregate(np.count_nonzero)
print(gp)
#       col2
# col1      
# 1        3
# 2        2
print(type(gp))
# <class '__main__.Container'>

print(type(gp[gp.col2 > 2]))
# <class '__main__.Container'>

tf = gp[gp.col2 > 2].reset_index()
print(type(tf))
# <class '__main__.Container'>

result = df[df.col1 == tf.col1]
print(type(result))
# <class '__main__.Container'>

Answer 2

I found unbutbu 's answer very useful for my own application, I ran into issues displaying it properly in a jupyter notebook. I found that adding the following methods to the class solved the issue.

def _repr_html_(self):
    return self.contained._repr_html_()

def _repr_latex_(self):
    return self.contained._repr_latex_()