Multiple copies of a pytest fixture

Question

Let's say I have a simple fixture like the following (using pytest-django, but it applies to pytest as well):

@pytest.fixture def my_thing(request, db):     thing = MyModel.objects.create()     request.addfinalizer(lambda: thing.delete())     return thing 

This works great when my tests need a single instance of MyModel. But what about if I need two (or three or four)? I want each instance to be distinct, but to be set up in the same way.

I could copy/paste the code and rename the fixture function, but that seems inelegant.

Similarly, I have tried:

@pytest.fixture def my_thing_1(my_thing):     return my_thing  @pytest.fixture def my_thing_2(my_thing):     return my_thing 

However, each of these appears to return the same instance of MyModel.

Is there a way to do what I want using pytest's built-in functionality? Alternately, I could move the setup/teardown of my fixture out into helper functions so I'm not duplicating too much code.

Or am I going about this whole thing the wrong way?

Answer 1

My approach would probably to create a fixture which can generate your objects:

@pytest.fixture def thing(request, db):     class ThingFactory(object):         def get(self):             thing = MyModel.objects.create()             request.addfinalizer(thing.delete)             return thing     return ThingFactory()  def test_thing(thing):     thing1 = thing.get()     thing2 = thing.get() 

Obviously you can make .get() take an argument etc.

(PS: Also note there's no need for the lambda in the finalizer)