Private variables

[Ryan Kelly]

On Thu, 2010-09-02 at 11:10 +1000, Rasjid Wilcox wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am aware the private variables are generally done via convention
> (leading underscore), but I came across a technique in Douglas
> Crockford's book "Javascript: The Good Parts" for creating private
> variables in Javascript, and I'd thought I'd see how it translated to
> Python. Here is my attempt.
> 
> def get_config(_cache=[]):
>     private = {}
>     private['a'] = 1
>     private['b'] = 2
>     if not _cache:
>         class Config(object):
>             @property
>             def a(self):
>                 return private['a']
>             @property
>             def b(self):
>                 return private['b']
>         config = Config()
>         _cache.append(config)
>     else:
>         config = _cache[0]
>     return config
> 
> >>> c = get_config()
> >>> c.a
> 1
> >>> c.b
> 2
> >>> c.a = 10
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<string>", line 1, in <fragment>
> AttributeError: can't set attribute
> >>> dir(c)
> ['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__',
> '__getattribute__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__', '__new__',
> '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__',
> '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', 'a', 'b']
> >>> d = get_config()
> >>> d is c
> True
> 
> I'm not really asking 'is it a good idea' but just 'does this work'?
> It seems to work to me, and is certainly 'good enough' in the sense
> that it should be impossible to accidentally change the variables of
> c.
> 
> But is it possible to change the value of c.a or c.b with standard
> python, without resorting to ctypes level manipulation?

It's not easy, but it can be done by introspecting the property object
you created and munging the closed-over dictionary object:

   >>> c = get_config()
   >>> c.a
   1
   >>> c.__class__.__dict__['a'].fget.func_closure[0].cell_contents['a'] = 7
   >>> c.a
   7
   >>> 


  Cheers,

     Ryan


-- 
Ryan Kelly
http://www.rfk.id.au  |  This message is digitally signed. Please visit
ryan at rfk.id.au        |  http://www.rfk.id.au/ramblings/gpg/ for details

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