Create a class at run-time

[Peter Otten]

Michel wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I'm trying to dynamically create a class. What I need is to define a
> class, add methods to it and later instantiate this class. Methods
> need to be bound to the instance though, and that's my problem. Here
> is what I have so far:
> 
> method_template = "def test_foo(self):\
>     #actual test_foo\
>     pass"
> exec method_template
> 
> TestClass = types.ClassType("MyTestClass", (unittest.TestCase, ), {})
> TestClass.__module__ = "test"
> 
> now what to do next?

Just assign it:

>>> import unittest
>>> class MyTestClass(unittest.TestCase): pass
...
>>> def test_foo(self):
...     self.assertEquals(1, 2)
...
>>> MyTestClass.test_foo = test_foo # <----
>>> unittest.main()
F
======================================================================
FAIL: test_foo (__main__.MyTestClass)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in test_foo
AssertionError: 1 != 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.000s

FAILED (failures=1)

If you don't know the method name beforehand use

setattr(MyTestClass, method_name, method), e. g:

>>> import unittest
>>> class MyTestClass(unittest.TestCase): pass
...                                           
>>> def make_method(n):
...     def test(self): self.assertEquals(2, n)
...     return test                            
...
>>> for i in range(3):
...     setattr(MyTestClass, "test_%d" % i, make_method(i))
...
>>> unittest.main()
FF.
======================================================================
FAIL: test_0 (__main__.MyTestClass)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in test
AssertionError: 2 != 0

======================================================================
FAIL: test_1 (__main__.MyTestClass)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in test
AssertionError: 2 != 1

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 3 tests in 0.000s

FAILED (failures=2)

Peter