bpo-32216: Add documentation for dataclasses (GH-6886)

This is an initial version that likely requires much polishing. I'm adding it lay out the structure and so we have something to start working from.

Doc/library/dataclasses.rst

+:mod:`dataclasses` --- Dataclasses
+==========================================
+
+.. module:: dataclasses
+    :synopsis: Generate special methods and add to user-defined classes.
+
+.. moduleauthor:: Eric V. Smith <eric@trueblade.com>
+.. sectionauthor:: Eric V. Smith <eric@trueblade.com>
+
+**Source code:** :source:`Lib/dataclasses.py`
+
+--------------
+
+This module provides a decorator and functions for automatically
+adding generated :term:`special method`\s such as :meth:`__init__` and
+:meth:`__repr__` to user-defined classes.  It was originally described
+in :pep:`557`.
+
+The member variables to use in these generated methods are defined
+using :pep:`526` type annotations.  For example this code::
+
+  @dataclass
+  class InventoryItem:
+      '''Class for keeping track of an item in inventory.'''
+      name: str
+      unit_price: float
+      quantity_on_hand: int = 0
+
+      def total_cost(self) -> float:
+          return self.unit_price * self.quantity_on_hand
+
+Will add, among other things, a :meth:`__init__` that looks like::
+
+  def __init__(self, name: str, unit_price: float, quantity_on_hand: int=0):
+      self.name = name
+      self.unit_price = unit_price
+      self.quantity_on_hand = quantity_on_hand
+
+Note that this method is automatically added to the class: it is not
+directly specified in the ``InventoryItem`` definition shown above.
+
+.. versionadded:: 3.7
+
+Module-level decorators, classes, and functions
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+.. decorator:: dataclass(*, init=True, repr=True, eq=True, order=False, unsafe_hash=False, frozen=False)
+
+   This function is a :term:`decorator` that is used to add generated
+   :term:`special method`\s to classes, as described below.
+
+   The :func:`dataclass` decorator examines the class to find
+   ``field``\s.  A ``field`` is defined as class variable that has a
+   type annotation.  With two exceptions described below, nothing in
+   :func:`dataclass` examines the type specified in the variable
+   annotation.
+
+   The order of the fields in all of the generated methods is the
+   order in which they appear in the class definition.
+
+   The :func:`dataclass` decorator will add various "dunder" methods to
+   the class, described below.  If any of the added methods already
+   exist on the class, a :exc:`TypeError` will be raised.  The decorator
+   returns the same class that is called on: no new class is created.
+
+   If :func:`dataclass` is used just as a simple decorator with no parameters,
+   it acts as if it has the default values documented in this
+   signature.  That is, these three uses of :func:`dataclass` are
+   equivalent::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+         ...
+
+     @dataclass()
+     class C:
+         ...
+
+     @dataclass(init=True, repr=True, eq=True, order=False, unsafe_hash=False, frozen=False)
+     class C:
+        ...
+
+   The parameters to :func:`dataclass` are:
+
+   - ``init``: If true (the default), a :meth:`__init__` method will be
+     generated.
+
+     If the class already defines :meth:`__init__`, this parameter is
+     ignored.
+
+   - ``repr``: If true (the default), a :meth:`__repr__` method will be
+     generated.  The generated repr string will have the class name and
+     the name and repr of each field, in the order they are defined in
+     the class.  Fields that are marked as being excluded from the repr
+     are not included.  For example:
+     ``InventoryItem(name='widget', unit_price=3.0, quantity_on_hand=10)``.
+
+     If the class already defines :meth:`__repr__`, this parameter is
+     ignored.
+
+   - ``eq``: If true (the default), an :meth:`__eq__` method will be
+     generated.  This method compares the class as if it were a tuple
+     of its fields, in order.  Both instances in the comparison must
+     be of the identical type.
+
+     If the class already defines :meth:`__eq__`, this parameter is
+     ignored.
+
+   - ``order``: If true (the default is ``False``), :meth:`__lt__`,
+     :meth:`__le__`, :meth:`__gt__`, and :meth:`__ge__` methods will be
+     generated.  These compare the class as if it were a tuple of its
+     fields, in order.  Both instances in the comparison must be of the
+     identical type.  If ``order`` is true and ``eq`` is false, a
+     :exc:`ValueError` is raised.
+
+     If the class already defines any of :meth:`__lt__`,
+     :meth:`__le__`, :meth:`__gt__`, or :meth:`__ge__`, then
+     :exc:`ValueError` is raised.
+
+   - ``unsafe_hash``: If ``False`` (the default), the :meth:`__hash__` method
+     is generated according to how ``eq`` and ``frozen`` are set.
+
+     If ``eq`` and ``frozen`` are both true, :func:`dataclass` will
+     generate a :meth:`__hash__` method for you.  If ``eq`` is true
+     and ``frozen`` is false, :meth:`__hash__` will be set to
+     ``None``, marking it unhashable (which it is, since it is
+     mutable).  If ``eq`` is false, :meth:`__hash__` will be left
+     untouched meaning the :meth:`__hash__` method of the superclass
+     will be used (if the superclass is :class:`object`, this means it will
+     fall back to id-based hashing).
+
+     Although not recommended, you can force :func:`dataclass` to
+     create a :meth:`__hash__` method with ``unsafe_hash=True``. This
+     might be the case if your class is logically immutable but can
+     nonetheless be mutated. This is a specialized use case and should
+     be considered carefully.
+
+     If a class already has an explicitely defined :meth:`__hash__`
+     the behavior when adding :meth:`__hash__` is modified.  An
+     expicitely defined :meth:`__hash__` is defined when:
+
+       - :meth:`__eq__` is defined in the class and :meth:`__hash__` is defined
+         with any value other than ``None``.
+
+       - :meth:`__eq__` is defined in the class and any non-``None``
+         :meth:`__hash__` is defined.
+
+       - :meth:`__eq__` is not defined on the class, and any :meth:`__hash__` is
+         defined.
+
+     If ``unsafe_hash`` is true and an explicitely defined :meth:`__hash__`
+     is present, then :exc:`ValueError` is raised.
+
+     If ``unsafe_hash`` is false and an explicitely defined :meth:`__hash__`
+     is present, then no :meth:`__hash__` is added.
+
+     See the Python documentation for more information.
+
+   - ``frozen``: If true (the default is False), assigning to fields will
+     generate an exception.  This emulates read-only frozen instances.
+     If either :meth:`__getattr__` or :meth:`__setattr__` is defined in
+     the class, then :exc:`ValueError` is raised.  See the discussion
+     below.
+
+   ``field``\s may optionally specify a default value, using normal
+   Python syntax::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+         a: int       # 'a' has no default value
+         b: int = 0   # assign a default value for 'b'
+
+   In this example, both ``a`` and ``b`` will be included in the added
+   :meth:`__init__` method, which will be defined as::
+
+     def __init__(self, a: int, b: int = 0):
+
+   :exc:`TypeError` will be raised if a field without a default value
+   follows a field with a default value.  This is true either when this
+   occurs in a single class, or as a result of class inheritance.
+
+.. function:: field(*, default=MISSING, default_factory=MISSING, repr=True, hash=None, init=True, compare=True, metadata=None)
+
+   For common and simple use cases, no other functionality is
+   required.  There are, however, some Data Class features that
+   require additional per-field information.  To satisfy this need for
+   additional information, you can replace the default field value
+   with a call to the provided :func:`field` function.  For example::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+         l: List[int] = field(default_factory=list)
+
+     c = C()
+     c.l += [1, 2, 3]
+
+   As shown above, the ``MISSING`` value is a sentinel object used to
+   detect if the ``default`` and ``default_factory`` parameters are
+   provided.  This sentinel is used because ``None`` is a valid value
+   for ``default``.  No code should directly use the ``MISSING``
+   value.
+
+   The parameters to :func:`field` are:
+
+   - ``default``: If provided, this will be the default value for this
+     field.  This is needed because the :meth:`field` call itself
+     replaces the normal position of the default value.
+
+   - ``default_factory``: If provided, it must be a zero-argument
+     callable that will be called when a default value is needed for
+     this field.  Among other purposes, this can be used to specify
+     fields with mutable default values, as discussed below.  It is an
+     error to specify both ``default`` and ``default_factory``.
+
+   - ``init``: If true (the default), this field is included as a
+     parameter to the generated :meth:`__init__` method.
+
+   - ``repr``: If true (the default), this field is included in the
+     string returned by the generated :meth:`__repr__` method.
+
+   - ``compare``: If true (the default), this field is included in the
+     generated equality and comparison methods (:meth:`__eq__`,
+     :meth:`__gt__`, et al.).
+
+   - ``hash``: This can be a bool or ``None``.  If True, this field is
+     included in the generated :meth:`__hash__` method.  If ``None`` (the
+     default), use the value of ``compare``: this would normally be
+     the expected behavior.  A field should be considered in the hash
+     if it's used for comparisons.  Setting this value to anything
+     other than ``None`` is discouraged.
+
+     One possible reason to set ``hash=False`` but ``compare=True``
+     would be if a field is expensive to compute a hash value for,
+     that field is needed for equality testing, and there are other
+     fields that contribute to the type's hash value.  Even if a field
+     is excluded from the hash, it will still be used for comparisons.
+
+   - ``metadata``: This can be a mapping or None. None is treated as
+     an empty dict.  This value is wrapped in
+     :func:`~types.MappingProxyType` to make it read-only, and exposed
+     on the :class:`Field` object. It is not used at all by Data
+     Classes, and is provided as a third-party extension mechanism.
+     Multiple third-parties can each have their own key, to use as a
+     namespace in the metadata.
+
+   If the default value of a field is specified by a call to
+   :func:`field()`, then the class attribute for this field will be
+   replaced by the specified ``default`` value.  If no ``default`` is
+   provided, then the class attribute will be deleted.  The intent is
+   that after the :func:`dataclass` decorator runs, the class
+   attributes will all contain the default values for the fields, just
+   as if the default value itself were specified.  For example,
+   after::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+         x: int
+         y: int = field(repr=False)
+         z: int = field(repr=False, default=10)
+         t: int = 20
+
+   The class attribute ``C.z`` will be ``10``, the class attribute
+   ``C.t`` will be ``20``, and the class attributes ``C.x`` and
+   ``C.y`` will not be set.
+
+.. class:: Field
+
+   :class:`Field` objects describe each defined field. These objects
+   are created internally, and are returned by the :func:`fields`
+   module-level method (see below).  Users should never instantiate a
+   :class:`Field` object directly.  Its documented attributes are:
+
+     - ``name``: The name of the field.
+
+     - ``type``: The type of the field.
+
+     - ``default``, ``default_factory``, ``init``, ``repr``, ``hash``,
+       ``compare``, and ``metadata`` have the identical meaning and
+       values as they do in the :func:`field` declaration.
+
+   Other attributes may exist, but they are private and must not be
+   inspected or relied on.
+
+.. function:: fields(class_or_instance)
+
+   Returns a tuple of :class:`Field` objects
+   that define the fields for this Data Class.  Accepts either a Data
+   Class, or an instance of a Data Class.  Raises :exc:`ValueError` if
+   not passed a Data Class or instance of one.  Does not return
+   pseudo-fields which are ``ClassVar`` or ``InitVar``.
+
+.. function:: asdict(instance, *, dict_factory=dict)
+
+   Converts the Data Class ``instance`` to a dict (by using the
+   factory function ``dict_factory``).  Each Data Class is converted
+   to a dict of its fields, as ``name: value`` pairs.  Data Classes, dicts,
+   lists, and tuples are recursed into.  For example::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class Point:
+          x: int
+          y: int
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+          l: List[Point]
+
+     p = Point(10, 20)
+     assert asdict(p) == {'x': 10, 'y': 20}
+
+     c = C([Point(0, 0), Point(10, 4)])
+     assert asdict(c) == {'l': [{'x': 0, 'y': 0}, {'x': 10, 'y': 4}]}
+
+   Raises :exc:`TypeError` if ``instance`` is not a Data Class instance.
+
+.. function:: astuple(*, tuple_factory=tuple)
+
+   Converts the Data Class ``instance`` to a tuple (by using the
+   factory function ``tuple_factory``).  Each Data Class is converted
+   to a tuple of its field values.  Data Classes, dicts, lists, and
+   tuples are recursed into.
+
+   Continuing from the previous example::
+
+     assert astuple(p) == (10, 20)
+     assert astuple(c) == ([(0, 0), (10, 4)],)
+
+   Raises :exc:`TypeError` if ``instance`` is not a Data Class instance.
+
+.. function:: make_dataclass(cls_name, fields, *, bases=(), namespace=None, init=True, repr=True, eq=True, order=False, unsafe_hash=False, frozen=False)
+
+   Creates a new Data Class with name ``cls_name``, fields as defined
+   in ``fields``, base classes as given in ``bases``, and initialized
+   with a namespace as given in ``namespace``.  ``fields`` is an
+   iterable whose elements are each either ``name``, ``(name, type)``,
+   or ``(name, type, Field)``.  If just ``name`` is supplied,
+   ``typing.Any`` is used for ``type``.  The values of ``init``,
+   ``repr``, ``eq``, ``order``, ``unsafe_hash``, and ``frozen`` have
+   the same meaning as they do in :func:`dataclass`.
+
+   This function is not strictly required, because any Python
+   mechanism for creating a new class with ``__annotations__`` can
+   then apply the :func:`dataclass` function to convert that class to
+   a Data Class.  This function is provided as a convenience.  For
+   example::
+
+     C = make_dataclass('C',
+                        [('x', int),
+                          'y',
+                         ('z', int, field(default=5))],
+                        namespace={'add_one': lambda self: self.x + 1})
+
+   Is equivalent to::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class C:
+         x: int
+         y: 'typing.Any'
+         z: int = 5
+
+         def add_one(self):
+             return self.x + 1
+
+.. function:: replace(instance, **changes)
+
+   Creates a new object of the same type of ``instance``, replacing
+   fields with values from ``changes``.  If ``instance`` is not a Data
+   Class, raises :exc:`TypeError`.  If values in ``changes`` do not
+   specify fields, raises :exc:`TypeError`.
+
+   The newly returned object is created by calling the :meth:`__init__`
+   method of the Data Class.  This ensures that
+   :meth:`__post_init__`, if present, is also called.
+
+   Init-only variables without default values, if any exist, must be
+   specified on the call to :func:`replace` so that they can be passed to
+   :meth:`__init__` and :meth:`__post_init__`.
+
+   It is an error for :func:`changes` to contain any fields that are
+   defined as having ``init=False``.  A :exc:`ValueError` will be raised
+   in this case.
+
+   Be forewarned about how ``init=False`` fields work during a call to
+   :func:`replace`.  They are not copied from the source object, but
+   rather are initialized in :meth:`__post_init__`, if they're
+   initialized at all.  It is expected that ``init=False`` fields will
+   be rarely and judiciously used.  If they are used, it might be wise
+   to have alternate class constructors, or perhaps a custom
+   ``replace()`` (or similarly named) method which handles instance
+   copying.
+
+.. function:: is_dataclass(class_or_instance)
+
+   Returns True if its parameter is a dataclass or an instance of one,
+   otherwise returns False.
+
+   If you need to know if a class is an instance of a dataclass (and
+   not a dataclass itself), then add a further check for ``not
+   isinstance(obj, type)``::
+
+     def is_dataclass_instance(obj):
+         return is_dataclass(obj) and not isinstance(obj, type)
+
+Post-init processing
+--------------------
+
+The generated :meth:`__init__` code will call a method named
+:meth:`__post_init__`, if :meth:`__post_init__` is defined on the
+class.  It will normally be called as ``self.__post_init__()``.
+However, if any ``InitVar`` fields are defined, they will also be
+passed to :meth:`__post_init` in the order they were defined in the
+class.  If no :meth:`__init__` method is generated, then
+:meth:`__post_init__` will not automatically be called.
+
+Among other uses, this allows for initializing field values that
+depend on one or more other fields.  For example::
+
+    @dataclass
+    class C:
+        a: float
+        b: float
+        c: float = field(init=False)
+
+        def __post_init__(self):
+            self.c = self.a + self.b
+
+See the section below on init-only variables for ways to pass
+parameters to :meth:`__post_init__`.  Also see the warning about how
+:func:`replace` handles ``init=False`` fields.
+
+Class variables
+---------------
+
+One of two places where :func:`dataclass` actually inspects the type
+of a field is to determine if a field is a class variable as defined
+in :pep:`526`.  It does this by checking if the type of the field is
+``typing.ClassVar``.  If a field is a ``ClassVar``, it is excluded
+from consideration as a field and is ignored by the Data Class
+mechanisms.  Such ``ClassVar`` pseudo-fields are not returned by the
+module-level :func:`fields` function.
+
+Init-only variables
+-------------------
+
+The other place where :func:`dataclass` inspects a type annotation is to
+determine if a field is an init-only variable.  It does this by seeing
+if the type of a field is of type ``dataclasses.InitVar``.  If a field
+is an ``InitVar``, it is considered a pseudo-field called an init-only
+field.  As it is not a true field, it is not returned by the
+module-level :func:`fields` function.  Init-only fields are added as
+parameters to the generated :meth:`__init__` method, and are passed to
+the optional :meth:`__post_init__` method.  They are not otherwise used
+by Data Classes.
+
+For example, suppose a field will be initialzed from a database, if a
+value is not provided when creating the class::
+
+  @dataclass
+  class C:
+      i: int
+      j: int = None
+      database: InitVar[DatabaseType] = None
+
+      def __post_init__(self, database):
+          if self.j is None and database is not None:
+              self.j = database.lookup('j')
+
+  c = C(10, database=my_database)
+
+In this case, :func:`fields` will return :class:`Field` objects for ``i`` and
+``j``, but not for ``database``.
+
+Frozen instances
+----------------
+
+It is not possible to create truly immutable Python objects.  However,
+by passing ``frozen=True`` to the :meth:`dataclass` decorator you can
+emulate immutability.  In that case, Data Classes will add
+:meth:`__setattr__` and :meth:`__delattr__` methods to the class.  These
+methods will raise a :exc:`FrozenInstanceError` when invoked.
+
+There is a tiny performance penalty when using ``frozen=True``:
+:meth:`__init__` cannot use simple assignment to initialize fields, and
+must use :meth:`object.__setattr__`.
+
+Inheritance
+-----------
+
+When the Data Class is being created by the :meth:`dataclass` decorator,
+it looks through all of the class's base classes in reverse MRO (that
+is, starting at :class:`object`) and, for each Data Class that it finds,
+adds the fields from that base class to an ordered mapping of fields.
+After all of the base class fields are added, it adds its own fields
+to the ordered mapping.  All of the generated methods will use this
+combined, calculated ordered mapping of fields.  Because the fields
+are in insertion order, derived classes override base classes.  An
+example::
+
+  @dataclass
+  class Base:
+      x: Any = 15.0
+      y: int = 0
+
+  @dataclass
+  class C(Base):
+      z: int = 10
+      x: int = 15
+
+The final list of fields is, in order, ``x``, ``y``, ``z``.  The final
+type of ``x`` is ``int``, as specified in class ``C``.
+
+The generated :meth:`__init__` method for ``C`` will look like::
+
+  def __init__(self, x: int = 15, y: int = 0, z: int = 10):
+
+Default factory functions
+-------------------------
+
+   If a :func:`field` specifies a ``default_factory``, it is called with
+   zero arguments when a default value for the field is needed.  For
+   example, to create a new instance of a list, use::
+
+     l: list = field(default_factory=list)
+
+   If a field is excluded from :meth:`__init__` (using ``init=False``)
+   and the field also specifies ``default_factory``, then the default
+   factory function will always be called from the generated
+   :meth:`__init__` function.  This happens because there is no other
+   way to give the field an initial value.
+
+Mutable default values
+----------------------
+
+   Python stores default member variable values in class attributes.
+   Consider this example, not using Data Classes::
+
+     class C:
+         x = []
+         def add(self, element):
+             self.x += element
+
+     o1 = C()
+     o2 = C()
+     o1.add(1)
+     o2.add(2)
+     assert o1.x == [1, 2]
+     assert o1.x is o2.x
+
+   Note that the two instances of class ``C`` share the same class
+   variable ``x``, as expected.
+
+   Using Data Classes, *if* this code was valid::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class D:
+         x: List = []
+         def add(self, element):
+             self.x += element
+
+   it would generate code similar to::
+
+     class D:
+         x = []
+         def __init__(self, x=x):
+             self.x = x
+         def add(self, element):
+             self.x += element
+
+     assert D().x is D().x
+
+   This has the same issue as the original example using class ``C``.
+   That is, two instances of class ``D`` that do not specify a value for
+   ``x`` when creating a class instance will share the same copy of
+   ``x``.  Because Data Classes just use normal Python class creation
+   they also share this problem.  There is no general way for Data
+   Classes to detect this condition.  Instead, Data Classes will raise a
+   :exc:`TypeError` if it detects a default parameter of type ``list``,
+   ``dict``, or ``set``.  This is a partial solution, but it does protect
+   against many common errors.
+
+   Using default factory functions is a way to create new instances of
+   mutable types as default values for fields::
+
+     @dataclass
+     class D:
+         x: list = field(default_factory=list)
+
+     assert D().x is not D().x

Doc/library/python.rst

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ overview:
    builtins.rst
    __main__.rst
    warnings.rst
+   dataclasses.rst
    contextlib.rst
    abc.rst
    atexit.rst