I was wondering if you could add an attribute to a Python dictionary?
class myclass(): def __init__(): self.mydict = {} # initialize a regular dict self.mydict.newattribute = "A description of what this dictionary will hold" >>> AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'newattribute' setattr(self.mydict, "attribute", "A description of what this dictionary will hold" >>> AttributeError: 'dict' object has no attribute 'newattribute'
Is there anyway to quickly add my description attribute without having to copy the dict class and overloading the constructor. I thought it would be simple, but I guess I was wrong.
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Answer
Just derive from dict
:
class MyDict(dict): pass
Instances of MyDict
behave like a dict
, but can have custom attributes:
>>> d = MyDict() >>> d.my_attr = "whatever" >>> d.my_attr 'whatever'