How to make a class property?

In python I can add a method to a class with the @classmethod decorator. Is there a similar decorator to add a property to a class? I can better show what I'm talking about.

class Example(object):
   the_I = 10
   def __init__( self ):
      self.an_i = 20
   
   @property
   def i( self ):
      return self.an_i

   def inc_i( self ):
      self.an_i += 1
 
   # is this even possible?
   @classproperty
   def I( cls ):
      return cls.the_I

   @classmethod
   def inc_I( cls ):
      cls.the_I += 1

e = Example()
assert e.i == 20
e.inc_i()
assert e.i == 21

assert Example.I == 10
Example.inc_I()
assert Example.I == 11

Is the syntax I've used above possible or would it require something more?

The reason I want class properties is so I can lazy load class attributes, which seems reasonable enough.

Here's how I would do this:

class ClassPropertyDescriptor(object):

    def __init__(self, fget, fset=None):
        self.fget = fget
        self.fset = fset

    def __get__(self, obj, klass=None):
        if klass is None:
            klass = type(obj)
        return self.fget.__get__(obj, klass)()

    def __set__(self, obj, value):
        if not self.fset:
            raise AttributeError("can't set attribute")
        type_ = type(obj)
        return self.fset.__get__(obj, type_)(value)

    def setter(self, func):
        if not isinstance(func, (classmethod, staticmethod)):
            func = classmethod(func)
        self.fset = func
        return self

def classproperty(func):
    if not isinstance(func, (classmethod, staticmethod)):
        func = classmethod(func)

    return ClassPropertyDescriptor(func)


class Bar(object):

    _bar = 1

    @classproperty
    def bar(cls):
        return cls._bar

    @bar.setter
    def bar(cls, value):
        cls._bar = value


# test instance instantiation
foo = Bar()
assert foo.bar == 1

baz = Bar()
assert baz.bar == 1

# test static variable
baz.bar = 5
assert foo.bar == 5

# test setting variable on the class
Bar.bar = 50
assert baz.bar == 50
assert foo.bar == 50

The setter didn't work at the time we call Bar.bar, because we are calling TypeOfBar.bar.__set__, which is not Bar.bar.__set__.

Adding a metaclass definition solves this:

class ClassPropertyMetaClass(type):
    def __setattr__(self, key, value):
        if key in self.__dict__:
            obj = self.__dict__.get(key)
        if obj and type(obj) is ClassPropertyDescriptor:
            return obj.__set__(self, value)

        return super(ClassPropertyMetaClass, self).__setattr__(key, value)

# and update class define:
#     class Bar(object):
#        __metaclass__ = ClassPropertyMetaClass
#        _bar = 1

# and update ClassPropertyDescriptor.__set__
#    def __set__(self, obj, value):
#    	if not self.fset:
#    		raise AttributeError("can't set attribute")
#    	if inspect.isclass(obj):
#    		type_ = obj
#    		obj = None
#    	else:
#    		type_ = type(obj)
#    	return self.fset.__get__(obj, type_)(value)

Now all will be fine.

If you define classproperty as follows, then your example works exactly as you requested.

class classproperty(object):
    def __init__(self, f):
        self.f = f
    def __get__(self, obj, owner):
        return self.f(owner)

The caveat is that you can't use this for writable properties. While e.I = 20 will raise an AttributeError, Example.I = 20 will overwrite the property object itself.

[answer written based on python 3.4; the metaclass syntax differs in 2 but I think the technique will still work]

You can do this with a metaclass...mostly. Dappawit's almost works, but I think it has a flaw:

class MetaFoo(type):
    @property
    def thingy(cls):
        return cls._thingy

class Foo(object, metaclass=MetaFoo):
    _thingy = 23

This gets you a classproperty on Foo, but there's a problem...

print("Foo.thingy is {}".format(Foo.thingy))
# Foo.thingy is 23
# Yay, the classmethod-property is working as intended!
foo = Foo()
if hasattr(foo, "thingy"):
    print("Foo().thingy is {}".format(foo.thingy))
else:
    print("Foo instance has no attribute 'thingy'")
# Foo instance has no attribute 'thingy'
# Wha....?

What the hell is going on here? Why can't I reach the class property from an instance?

I was beating my head on this for quite a while before finding what I believe is the answer. Python @properties are a subset of descriptors, and, from the descriptor documentation (emphasis mine):

> The default behavior for attribute access is to get, set, or delete the > attribute from an object’s dictionary. For instance, a.x has a lookup chain > starting with a.__dict__['x'], then type(a).__dict__['x'], and continuing > through the base classes of type(a) excluding metaclasses.

So the method resolution order doesn't include our class properties (or anything else defined in the metaclass). It is possible to make a subclass of the built-in property decorator that behaves differently, but (citation needed) I've gotten the impression googling that the developers had a good reason (which I do not understand) for doing it that way.

That doesn't mean we're out of luck; we can access the properties on the class itself just fine...and we can get the class from type(self) within the instance, which we can use to make @property dispatchers:

class Foo(object, metaclass=MetaFoo):
    _thingy = 23

    @property
    def thingy(self):
        return type(self).thingy

Now Foo().thingy works as intended for both the class and the instances! It will also continue to do the right thing if a derived class replaces its underlying _thingy (which is the use case that got me on this hunt originally).

This isn't 100% satisfying to me -- having to do setup in both the metaclass and object class feels like it violates the DRY principle. But the latter is just a one-line dispatcher; I'm mostly okay with it existing, and you could probably compact it down to a lambda or something if you really wanted.

I think you may be able to do this with the metaclass. Since the metaclass can be like a class for the class (if that makes sense). I know you can assign a __call__() method to the metaclass to override calling the class, MyClass(). I wonder if using the property decorator on the metaclass operates similarly. (I haven't tried this before, but now I'm curious...)

[update:]

Wow, it does work:

class MetaClass(type):    
    def getfoo(self):
        return self._foo
    foo = property(getfoo)
    
    @property
    def bar(self):
        return self._bar
    
class MyClass(object):
    __metaclass__ = MetaClass
    _foo = 'abc'
    _bar = 'def'
    
print MyClass.foo
print MyClass.bar

Note: This is in Python 2.7. Python 3+ uses a different technique to declare a metaclass. Use: class MyClass(metaclass=MetaClass):, remove __metaclass__, and the rest is the same.

If you use Django, it has a built in @classproperty decorator.

from django.utils.decorators import classproperty

For Django 4, use:

from django.utils.functional import classproperty

As far as I can tell, there is no way to write a setter for a class property without creating a new metaclass.

I have found that the following method works. Define a metaclass with all of the class properties and setters you want. IE, I wanted a class with a title property with a setter. Here's what I wrote:

class TitleMeta(type):
    @property
    def title(self):
        return getattr(self, '_title', 'Default Title')

    @title.setter
    def title(self, title):
        self._title = title
        # Do whatever else you want when the title is set...

Now make the actual class you want as normal, except have it use the metaclass you created above.

# Python 2 style:
class ClassWithTitle(object):
    __metaclass__ = TitleMeta
    # The rest of your class definition...

# Python 3 style:
class ClassWithTitle(object, metaclass = TitleMeta):
    # Your class definition...

It's a bit weird to define this metaclass as we did above if we'll only ever use it on the single class. In that case, if you're using the Python 2 style, you can actually define the metaclass inside the class body. That way it's not defined in the module scope.

def _create_type(meta, name, attrs):
    type_name = f'{name}Type'
    type_attrs = {}
    for k, v in attrs.items():
        if type(v) is _ClassPropertyDescriptor:
            type_attrs[k] = v
    return type(type_name, (meta,), type_attrs)


class ClassPropertyType(type):
    def __new__(meta, name, bases, attrs):
        Type = _create_type(meta, name, attrs)
        cls = super().__new__(meta, name, bases, attrs)
        cls.__class__ = Type
        return cls


class _ClassPropertyDescriptor(object):
    def __init__(self, fget, fset=None):
        self.fget = fget
        self.fset = fset

    def __get__(self, obj, owner):
        if self in obj.__dict__.values():
            return self.fget(obj)
        return self.fget(owner)

    def __set__(self, obj, value):
        if not self.fset:
            raise AttributeError("can't set attribute")
        return self.fset(obj, value)

    def setter(self, func):
        self.fset = func
        return self


def classproperty(func):
    return _ClassPropertyDescriptor(func)



class Bar(metaclass=ClassPropertyType):
    __bar = 1

    @classproperty
    def bar(cls):
        return cls.__bar

    @bar.setter
    def bar(cls, value):
        cls.__bar = value

bar = Bar()
assert Bar.bar==1
Bar.bar=2
assert bar.bar==2
nbar = Bar()
assert nbar.bar==2

If you only need lazy loading, then you could just have a class initialisation method.

EXAMPLE_SET = False
class Example(object):
   @classmethod 
   def initclass(cls):
       global EXAMPLE_SET 
       if EXAMPLE_SET: return
       cls.the_I = 'ok'
       EXAMPLE_SET = True
      
   def __init__( self ):
      Example.initclass()
      self.an_i = 20

try:
    print Example.the_I
except AttributeError:
    print 'ok class not "loaded"'
foo = Example()
print foo.the_I
print Example.the_I

But the metaclass approach seems cleaner, and with more predictable behavior.

Perhaps what you're looking for is the Singleton design pattern. There's a nice SO QA about implementing shared state in Python.

I happened to come up with a solution very similar to @Andrew, only DRY

class MetaFoo(type):

    def __new__(mc1, name, bases, nmspc):
        nmspc.update({'thingy': MetaFoo.thingy})
        return super(MetaFoo, mc1).__new__(mc1, name, bases, nmspc)

    @property
    def thingy(cls):
        if not inspect.isclass(cls):
            cls = type(cls)
        return cls._thingy

    @thingy.setter
    def thingy(cls, value):
        if not inspect.isclass(cls):
            cls = type(cls)
        cls._thingy = value

class Foo(metaclass=MetaFoo):
    _thingy = 23

class Bar(Foo)
    _thingy = 12

This has the best of all answers:

The "metaproperty" is added to the class, so that it will still be a property of the instance

1. Don't need to redefine thingy in any of the classes
2. The property works as a "class property" in for both instance and class
3. You have the flexibility to customize how _thingy is inherited

In my case, I actually customized _thingy to be different for every child, without defining it in each class (and without a default value) by:

   def __new__(mc1, name, bases, nmspc):
       nmspc.update({'thingy': MetaFoo.services, '_thingy': None})
       return super(MetaFoo, mc1).__new__(mc1, name, bases, nmspc)