Using the flufl.enum library

Author: Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org>

The flufl.enum package provides an enumeration data type for Python. This package was the inspiration for PEP 435. flufl.enum provides similar functionality compatible with versions of Python from Python 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, and beyond.

An enumeration is a set of symbolic names bound to unique, constant values, called enumeration items. Within an enumeration, the items can be compared by identity, and the enumeration itself can be iterated over. The underlying values can be retrieved from the enumeration items. An integer based variant is provided which allows items to be used as slices, to interoperate with C-based APIs, and for logical operations.

Motivation

[Lifted from PEP 354 - the original rejected enumeration PEP]

The properties of an enumeration are useful for defining an immutable, related set of constant values that have a defined sequence but no inherent semantic meaning. Classic examples are days of the week (Sunday through Saturday) and school assessment grades (‘A’ through ‘D’, and ‘F’). Other examples include error status values and states within a defined process.

It is possible to simply define a sequence of values of some other basic type, such as int or str, to represent discrete arbitrary values. However, an enumeration ensures that such values are distinct from any others, and that operations without meaning (“Wednesday times two”) are not defined for these values.

Creating an Enumeration

Class syntax

Enumerations can be created using the class syntax, which makes them easy to read and write. Every enumeration item must have a unique value and the only restriction on their names is that they must be valid Python identifiers. To define an enumeration, derive from the Enum class and add attributes with assignment to their values. Values may not be duplicated.

>>> from flufl.enum import Enum
>>> class Colors(Enum):
...     red = 1
...     green = 2
...     blue = 3

Enumeration items have nice, human readable string representations.

>>> print(Colors.red)
Colors.red

The reprs have additional detail.

>>> print(repr(Colors.red))
<EnumValue: Colors.red [value=1]>

Integer Enumerations

A special subclass of Enum can be used when the enumeration items need to act like integers. In fact, the items in this IntEnum class are integers and can be used any place an integer needs to be used, including when interfacing with C APIs.

>>> from flufl.enum import IntEnum
>>> class Animals(IntEnum):
...     ant = 1
...     bee = 2
...     cat = 3

These enumeration items can be converted to integers.

>>> int(Animals.bee)
2

These enumeration items can also be used as slice indexes.

>>> list(range(10)[Animals.ant:Animals.cat])
[1, 2]

Convenience API

For convenience, you can create an enumeration by calling the Enum class. The first argument is the name of the new enumeration, and the second is provides the enumeration items. There are several ways to specify the items – see the section Functional API for details – but the easiest way is to provide a string of space separated attribute names. The values for these items are auto-assigned integers starting from 1.

>>> Rush = Enum('Rush', 'geddy alex neil')

The str and repr provide details.

>>> print(Rush.geddy)
Rush.geddy
>>> print(repr(Rush.geddy))
<EnumValue: Rush.geddy [value=1]>

See the section on the Functional API for more options and information.

Values

Enumeration items can have any value you choose, but typically they will be integer or string values, and it is recommended that all the values be of the same type, although this is not enforced.

>>> class Rush(Enum):
...     geddy = 'bass'
...     alex = 'guitar'
...     neil = 'drums'

>>> print(repr(Rush.alex))
<EnumValue: Rush.alex [value=guitar]>

Inspecting Enumerations

dir() returns the enumeration item names.

>>> for member in sorted(dir(Colors)):
...     print(member)
blue
green
red

The str and repr of the enumeration class also provides useful information. The items are always sorted by attribute name.

>>> print(Colors)
<Colors {blue: 3, green: 2, red: 1}>
>>> print(repr(Colors))
<Colors {blue: 3, green: 2, red: 1}>

You can get the enumeration class object from an enumeration item.

>>> cls = Colors.red.enum
>>> print(cls.__name__)
Colors

Enumerations also have a property that contains just their item name.

>>> print(Colors.red.name)
red
>>> print(Colors.green.name)
green
>>> print(Colors.blue.name)
blue

The underlying item value can also be retrieved via the .value attribute.

>>> print(Rush.geddy.value)
bass

Integer enumerations can also be explicitly convert to their integer value using the int() built-in.

>>> int(Animals.ant)
1
>>> int(Animals.bee)
2
>>> int(Animals.cat)
3

Comparison

Enumeration items are compared by identity.

>>> Colors.red is Colors.red
True
>>> Colors.blue is Colors.blue
True
>>> Colors.red is not Colors.blue
True
>>> Colors.blue is Colors.red
False

Standard Enumerations

The standard Enum class does not allow comparisons against the integer equivalent values, and if you define an enumeration with similar item names and integer values, they will not be identical.

>>> class OtherColors(Enum):
...     red = 1
...     blue = 2
...     yellow = 3
>>> Colors.red is OtherColors.red
False
>>> Colors.blue is not OtherColors.blue
True

These enumeration items are not equal, nor do they hash equally.

>>> Colors.red == OtherColors.red
False
>>> len(set((Colors.red, OtherColors.red)))
2

Ordered comparisons between enumeration items are not supported. The base enumeration values are not integers!

>>> Colors.red < Colors.blue
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ...
>>> Colors.red <= Colors.blue
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ...
>>> Colors.blue > Colors.green
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ...
>>> Colors.blue >= Colors.green
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ...
>>> Colors.red < 3
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ...

Equality comparisons are defined though.

>>> Colors.blue == Colors.blue
True
>>> Colors.green != Colors.blue
True

While equality comparisons are allowed, comparisons against non-enumeration items will always compare not equal.

>>> Colors.green == 2
False
>>> Colors.blue == 3
False
>>> Colors.green != 3
True
>>> Colors.green == 'green'
False

Integer enumerations

With the IntEnum class though, enumeration items are integers, so all the ordered comparisons work as expected.

>>> Animals.ant < Animals.bee
True
>>> Animals.cat > Animals.ant
True

Comparisons against other numbers also work as expected.

>>> Animals.ant <= 1.0
True
>>> Animals.bee == 2
True

You can even compare integer enumeration items against other unrelated integer enumeration items, since the comparisons use the standard integer operators.

>>> class Toppings(IntEnum):
...     anchovies = 1
...     black_olives = 2
...     cheese = 4
...     dried_tomatoes = 8
...     eggplant = 16

>>> Toppings.black_olives == Animals.bee
True

Conversions

You can convert back to the enumeration item by using the Enum class’s getitem syntax, passing in the value for the item you want.

>>> Colors[2]
<EnumValue: Colors.green [value=2]>
>>> Rush['bass']
<EnumValue: Rush.geddy [value=bass]>
>>> Colors[1] is Colors.red
True

If instead you have the enumeration name (i.e. the attribute name), just use Python’s normal getattr() function.

>>> getattr(Colors, 'red')
<EnumValue: Colors.red [value=1]>
>>> getattr(Rush, Rush.alex.name)
<EnumValue: Rush.alex [value=guitar]>
>>> getattr(Colors, 'blue') is Colors.blue
True

Iteration

The Enum class support iteration. Items are returned in order, sorted by their attribute name.

>>> from operator import attrgetter
>>> by_value = attrgetter('value')
>>> [v.name for v in sorted(Colors, key=by_value)]
['red', 'green', 'blue']
>>> [v.value for v in sorted(Colors, key=by_value)]
[1, 2, 3]
>>> [v.name for v in sorted(Rush, key=by_value)]
['geddy', 'neil', 'alex']
>>> for v in sorted(Rush, key=by_value):
...     print(v.value)
bass
drums
guitar

Iteration over IntEnum is sorted in the order of the enumeration item values.

>>> class Toppings(IntEnum):
...     anchovies = 4
...     black_olives = 8
...     cheese = 2
...     dried_tomatoes = 16
...     eggplant = 1

>>> for value in Toppings:
...     print(value.name, '=', value.value)
eggplant = 1
cheese = 2
anchovies = 4
black_olives = 8
dried_tomatoes = 16

Enumeration items can be used in dictionaries and sets.

>>> from operator import attrgetter
>>> getvalue = attrgetter('value')
>>> apples = {}
>>> apples[Colors.red] = 'red delicious'
>>> apples[Colors.green] = 'granny smith'
>>> for color in sorted(apples, key=getvalue):
...     print(color.name, '->', apples[color])
red -> red delicious
green -> granny smith

Extending an enumeration through subclassing

You can extend previously defined enumerations by subclassing. Just as before, items cannot be duplicated in either the base class or subclass.

>>> class MoreColors(Colors):
...     pink = 4
...     cyan = 5

When extended in this way, the base enumeration’s items are identical to the same named items in the derived class.

>>> Colors.red is MoreColors.red
True
>>> Colors.blue is MoreColors.blue
True

Pickling

Enumerations created with the class syntax can also be pickled and unpickled:

>>> from flufl.enum.tests.fruit import Fruit
>>> from pickle import dumps, loads
>>> Fruit.tomato is loads(dumps(Fruit.tomato))
True

Functional API

As described above, you can create enumerations functionally by calling Enum or IntEnum.

The first argument is always the name of the new enumeration. The second argument describes the enumeration item names and values. As mentioned previously, the easiest way to create new enumerations is to provide a single string with space-separated attribute names. In this case, the values are auto-assigned integers starting from 1.

>>> Enum('Animals', 'ant bee cat dog')
<Animals {ant: 1, bee: 2, cat: 3, dog: 4}>

The second argument can also be a sequence of strings. In this case too, the values are auto-assigned integers starting from 1.

>>> Enum('People', ('anne', 'bart', 'cate', 'dave'))
<People {anne: 1, bart: 2, cate: 3, dave: 4}>

The items can also be specified by using a sequence of 2-tuples, where the first item is the enumeration item name and the second is the value to use. If 2-tuples are given, all items must be 2-tuples.

>>> def enumiter():
...     start = 1
...     while True:
...         yield start
...         start <<= 1
>>> Enum('Flags', zip(list('abcdefg'), enumiter()))
<Flags {a: 1, b: 2, c: 4, d: 8, e: 16, f: 32, g: 64}>

You can also provide the enumeration items as a dictionary mapping names to values. Remember that the repr is sorted by attribute name.

>>> bassists = dict(geddy='rush', chris='yes', flea='rhcp', jack='cream')
>>> Enum('Bassists', bassists)
<Bassists {chris: yes, flea: rhcp, geddy: rush, jack: cream}>

If you want to create an IntEnum where the values are integer subclasses, call that class instead. This has the same signature as calling Enum but the items of the returned enumeration are int subclasses.

>>> Numbers = IntEnum('Numbers', 'one two three four'.split())
>>> Numbers.three == 3
True

Customization protocol

You can define your own enumeration value types by using the __value_factory__ protocol. This is how the IntEnum type is defined. As an example, let’s say you want to define a new type of enumeration where the values were subclasses of str. First, define your enumeration value subclass.

>>> from flufl.enum import EnumValue
>>> class StrEnumValue(str, EnumValue):
...     def __new__(cls, enum, value, attr):
...         return super(StrEnumValue, cls).__new__(cls, value)

And then define your enumeration class. You must set the class attribute __value_factory__ to the class of the values you want to create.

>>> class StrEnum(Enum):
...     __value_factory__ = StrEnumValue

Now, when you define your enumerations, the values will be str subclasses.

>>> class Noises(StrEnum):
...     dog = 'bark'
...     cat = 'meow'
...     cow = 'moo'

>>> isinstance(Noises.cow, str)
True

Acknowledgments

The flufl.enum implementation is based on an example by Jeremy Hylton. It has been modified and extended by Barry Warsaw for use in the GNU Mailman project. Ben Finney is the author of the earlier enumeration PEP 354. Eli Bendersky is the co-author of PEP 435. Numerous people on the python-ideas and python-dev mailing lists have provided valuable feedback.