Is there a python function to rename an object's attribute?

Question

Basically, is there already a built-in or commonly available function that does this:

def rename_attribute(object_, old_attribute_name, new_attribute_name):
    setattr(object_, new_attribute_name, getattr(object_, old_attribute_name))
    delattr(object_, old_attribute_name)

Answer 1

No, there isn't but you could make it easier playing with the namespace:

def rename_attribute(obj, old_name, new_name):
    obj.__dict__[new_name] = obj.__dict__.pop(old_name)

Answer 2

There is no builtin or standard library function doing this. I assume, because:

• it is trivial, as your completely sufficient example shows
• there's no general use case

Answer 3

What you can do is to use the Setter and Getter bult-in python's methods to provide a facade / rename for the original attribute.

For instance: suppose you have an attribute attr and you want to rename it to new_attr in order to return or modify attr when you refer to new_attr.

class Foo:
    def __init__(self, a):
        self.attr = a
        
    @property
    def new_attr(self):
        return self.attr
        
    @new_attr.setter
    def new_attr(self, new_value):
        self.attr = new_value

When calling the the attribute for its new name, we have:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    f = Foo(2)
    print('The renamed attribute is', f.new_attr)
    f.new_attr = 5
    print('The renamed attribute after using setter method is', f.new_attr)
    print('The old attribute is', f.attr)

At the output:

'The renamed attribute is 2'
'The renamed attribute after using setter method is 5'
'The old attribute is 5'

Notice that attr always still available for its use and new_attr always will make reference to attr.