Issue 12086: add example showing how to use name mangling.

This commit is contained in:
Raymond Hettinger 2011-06-25 16:31:06 +02:00
commit 142d0f5e5a
1 changed files with 22 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -595,6 +595,28 @@ current class name with leading underscore(s) stripped. This mangling is done
without regard to the syntactic position of the identifier, as long as it without regard to the syntactic position of the identifier, as long as it
occurs within the definition of a class. occurs within the definition of a class.
Name mangling is helpful for letting subclasses override methods without
breaking intraclass method calls. For example::
class Mapping:
def __init__(self, iterable):
self.items_list = []
self.__update(iterable)
def update(self, iterable):
for item in iterable:
self.items_list.append(item)
__update = update # private copy of original update() method
class MappingSubclass(Mapping):
def update(self, keys, values):
# provides new signature for update()
# but does not break __init__()
for item in zip(keys, values):
self.items_list.append(item)
Note that the mangling rules are designed mostly to avoid accidents; it still is Note that the mangling rules are designed mostly to avoid accidents; it still is
possible to access or modify a variable that is considered private. This can possible to access or modify a variable that is considered private. This can
even be useful in special circumstances, such as in the debugger. even be useful in special circumstances, such as in the debugger.