DZone
Web Dev Zone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
  • Refcardz
  • Trend Reports
  • Webinars
  • Zones
  • |
    • Agile
    • AI
    • Big Data
    • Cloud
    • Database
    • DevOps
    • Integration
    • IoT
    • Java
    • Microservices
    • Open Source
    • Performance
    • Security
    • Web Dev
DZone > Web Dev Zone > Python 201: Decorating the main function

Python 201: Decorating the main function

Mike Driscoll user avatar by
Mike Driscoll
·
Jun. 04, 12 · Web Dev Zone · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
3.07K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Last week, I was reading Brett Cannon’s blog where he talks about function signatures and decorating the main function. I didn’t follow everything he talked about, but I thought the concept was really interesting. The following code is an example based on a recipe that Mr. Cannon mentioned. I think it illustrates what he’s talking about, but basically if provides a way to remove the standard

if __name__ == "__main__":
   doSomething()

Anyway, here’s the code.

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
def doSomething(name="Mike"):
    """"""
    print "Welcome to the program, " + name
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
def main(f):
    """"""
    if f.__module__ == '__main__':
        f()
    return f
 
main(doSomething)

The nice part about this is that the main function can be anywhere in the code. If you like to use decorators, then you can re-write this as follows:

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
def main(f):
    """"""
    if f.__module__ == '__main__':
        f()
    return f
 
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
@main
def doSomething(name="Mike"):
    """"""
    print "Welcome to the program, " + name
Note that the main function has to come before you can decorate the doSomething function. I’m not sure how or even if I would use this sort of trick, but I thought it might be fun to experiment with at some point.

Python (language) Concept (generic programming) Sort (Unix) Blog

Published at DZone with permission of Mike Driscoll, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • How to Configure Git in Eclipse IDE
  • How to Optimize MySQL Queries for Speed and Performance
  • Role of Development Team in an Agile Environment
  • Choosing Between REST and GraphQL

Comments

Web Dev Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • MVB Program
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends:

DZone.com is powered by 

AnswerHub logo