4.6. Inheritance Composition

4.6.1. Diagram

4.6.2. Code

class TupleSerializer:
    def astuple(self, instance):
        data = [v for v in vars(instance).values()]
        return tuple(data)


class DictSerializer:
    def asdict(self, instance):
        data = {k: v for k, v in vars(instance).items()
                if not k.startswith('_')}
        return dict(data)


class Account:
    tuple_serializer: TupleSerializer | None
    dict_serializer: DictSerializer | None

    def __init__(self, firstname, lastname):
        self.firstname = firstname
        self.lastname = lastname

    def astuple(self):
        if self.tuple_serializer is None:
            clsname = self.__class__.__name__
            error = f"'{clsname}' object has no attribute 'astuple'"
            raise AttributeError(error)
        return self.tuple_serializer.astuple(self)

    def asdict(self):
        if self.dict_serializer is None:
            clsname = self.__class__.__name__
            error = f"'{clsname}' object has no attribute 'asdict'"
            raise AttributeError(error)
        return self.dict_serializer.asdict(self)


class User(Account):
    tuple_serializer = None
    dict_serializer = None


class Staff(Account):
    tuple_serializer = TupleSerializer()
    dict_serializer = None


class Admin(Account):
    tuple_serializer = TupleSerializer()
    dict_serializer = DictSerializer()

4.6.3. Usage

>>> mark = User('Mark', 'Watney')
>>>
>>> mark.astuple()
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: 'User' object has no attribute 'astuple'
>>>
>>> mark.asdict()
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: 'User' object has no attribute 'asdict'

>>> rick = Staff('Rick', 'Martinez')
>>>
>>> rick.astuple()
('Rick', 'Martinez')
>>>
>>> rick.asdict()
Traceback (most recent call last):
AttributeError: 'Staff' object has no attribute 'asdict'

>>> melissa = Admin('Melissa', 'Lewis')
>>>
>>> melissa.astuple()
('Melissa', 'Lewis')
>>>
>>> melissa.asdict()
{'firstname': 'Melissa', 'lastname': 'Lewis'}

4.6.4. Extensibility

>>> class MyTupleSerializer(TupleSerializer):
...     def astuple(self, instance):
...         data = super().astuple(instance)
...         print('do something extra')
...         return tuple(data)

>>> mark = User('Mark', 'Watney', tuple_serializer=MyTupleSerializer)
>>>
>>> mark.astuple()
do something extra
('Mark', 'Watney')

4.6.5. Use Case - 0x01

>>> class UserPermissions:
...     pass
>>>
>>> class AdminPermissions:
...     pass
>>>
>>> class MyAccount:
...     permissions: UserPermissions | AdminPermissions
...
...     def __init__(self, permissions=UserPermissions()):
...         self.permissions = permissions

4.6.6. Use Case - 0x02

SetUp:

>>> import json
>>> from datetime import date

Naive example:

>>> data = {
...     'firstname': 'Mark',
...     'lastname': 'Watney',
... }
>>>
>>> json.dumps(data)
'{"firstname": "Mark", "lastname": "Watney"}'

Let's add a birthdate:

>>> data = {
...     'firstname': 'Mark',
...     'lastname': 'Watney',
...     'birthdate': date(1969, 7, 21),
... }
>>>
>>> json.dumps(data)
Traceback (most recent call last):
TypeError: Object of type date is not JSON serializable

If you want to use your better version of encoder (for example which can encode date object. You can create a class which inherits from default json.JSONEncoder and overwrite .default() method. Here's the solution:

>>> class MyEncoder(json.JSONEncoder):
...     def default(self, obj):
...         if isinstance(obj, date):
...             return obj.isoformat()
>>>
>>>
>>> data = {
...     'firstname': 'Mark',
...     'lastname': 'Watney',
...     'birthdate': date(1969, 7, 21),
... }
>>>
>>> json.dumps(data, cls=MyEncoder)
'{"firstname": "Mark", "lastname": "Watney", "birthdate": "1969-07-21"}'