Set function signature in Python

Question

From PEP-0362, there actually does appear to be a way to set the signature in py3.3+, using the fn.__signature__ attribute:

from inspect import signature
from functools import wraps

def shared_vars(*shared_args):
    """Decorator factory that defines shared variables that are
       passed to every invocation of the function"""

    def decorator(f):
        @wraps(f)
        def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
            full_args = shared_args + args
            return f(*full_args, **kwargs)

        # Override signature
        sig = signature(f)
        sig = sig.replace(parameters=tuple(sig.parameters.values())[1:])
        wrapper.__signature__ = sig

        return wrapper
    return decorator

Then:

>>> @shared_vars({"myvar": "myval"})
>>> def example(_state, a, b, c):
>>>     return _state, a, b, c
>>> example(1,2,3)
({'myvar': 'myval'}, 1, 2, 3)
>>> str(signature(example))
'(a, b, c)'

Note: the PEP is not exactly right; Signature.replace moved the params from a positional arg to a kw-only arg.

For your usecase, having a docstring in the class/function should work -- that will show up in help() okay, and can be set programmatically (func.__doc__ = "stuff").

I can't see any way of setting the actual signature. I would have thought the functools module would have done it if it was doable, but it doesn't, at least in py2.5 and py2.6.

You can also raise a TypeError exception if you get bad input.

Hmm, if you don't mind being truly vile, you can use compile()/eval() to do it. If your desired signature is specified by arglist=["foo","bar","baz"], and your actual function is f(*args, **kwargs), you can manage:

argstr = ", ".join(arglist)
fakefunc = "def func(%s):\n    return real_func(%s)\n" % (argstr, argstr)
fakefunc_code = compile(fakefunc, "fakesource", "exec")
fakeglobals = {}
eval(fakefunc_code, {"real_func": f}, fakeglobals)
f_with_good_sig = fakeglobals["func"]

help(f)               # f(*args, **kwargs)
help(f_with_good_sig) # func(foo, bar, baz)

Changing the docstring and func_name should get you a complete solution. But, uh, eww...

I wrote a package named forge that solves this exact problem for Python 3.5+:

With your current code looking like this:

l=["x", "y"]
d={"opt":None}

def f(*args, **kwargs):
    #My code

And your desired code looking like this:

def f2(x, y, opt=None):
    #My code

Here is how you would solve that using forge:

f2 = forge.sign(
    forge.arg('x'),
    forge.arg('y'),
    forge.arg('opt', default=None),
)(f)

As forge.sign is a wrapper, you could also use it directly:

@forge.sign(
    forge.arg('x'),
    forge.arg('y'),
    forge.arg('opt', default=None),
)
def func(*args, **kwargs):
    # signature becomes: func(x, y, opt=None)
    return (args, kwargs)

assert func(1, 2) == ((), {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'opt': None})

Have a look at makefun, it was made for that (exposing variants of functions with more or less parameters and accurate signature), and works in python 2 and 3.

Your example would be written like this:

try:  # python 3.3+
    from inspect import signature, Signature, Parameter
except ImportError:
    from funcsigs import signature, Signature, Parameter

from makefun import create_function

def create_initiation_function(cls, gen_init):
    # (1) check which signature we want to create
    params = [Parameter('self', kind=Parameter.POSITIONAL_OR_KEYWORD)]
    for mandatory_arg_name in cls.__init_args__:
        params.append(Parameter(mandatory_arg_name, kind=Parameter.POSITIONAL_OR_KEYWORD))
    for default_arg_name, default_arg_val in cls.__opt_init_args__.items():
        params.append(Parameter(default_arg_name, kind=Parameter.POSITIONAL_OR_KEYWORD, default=default_arg_val))
    sig = Signature(params)

    # (2) create the init function dynamically
    return create_function(sig, generic_init)

# ----- let's use it

def generic_init(self, *args, **kwargs):
    """Function to initiate a generic object"""
    assert len(args) == 0
    for name, val in kwargs.items():
        setattr(self, name, val)

class my_class:
    __init_args__ = ["x", "y"]
    __opt_init_args__ = {"my_opt": None}

my_class.__init__ = create_initiation_function(my_class, generic_init)

and works as expected:

# check 
o1 = my_class(1, 2)
assert vars(o1) == {'y': 2, 'x': 1, 'my_opt': None}

o2 = my_class(1, 2, 3)
assert vars(o2) == {'y': 2, 'x': 1, 'my_opt': 3}

o3 = my_class(my_opt='hello', y=3, x=2)
assert vars(o3) == {'y': 3, 'x': 2, 'my_opt': 'hello'}