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1:mod:`collections.abc` --- Abstract Base Classes for Containers
2===============================================================
3
4.. module:: collections.abc
5   :synopsis: Abstract base classes for containers
6
7.. moduleauthor:: Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com>
8.. sectionauthor:: Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com>
9
10.. versionadded:: 3.3
11   Formerly, this module was part of the :mod:`collections` module.
12
13**Source code:** :source:`Lib/_collections_abc.py`
14
15.. testsetup:: *
16
17   from collections import *
18   import itertools
19   __name__ = '<doctest>'
20
21--------------
22
23This module provides :term:`abstract base classes <abstract base class>` that
24can be used to test whether a class provides a particular interface; for
25example, whether it is hashable or whether it is a mapping.
26
27
28.. _collections-abstract-base-classes:
29
30Collections Abstract Base Classes
31---------------------------------
32
33The collections module offers the following :term:`ABCs <abstract base class>`:
34
35.. tabularcolumns:: |l|L|L|L|
36
37========================== ====================== ======================= ====================================================
38ABC                        Inherits from          Abstract Methods        Mixin Methods
39========================== ====================== ======================= ====================================================
40:class:`Container`                                ``__contains__``
41:class:`Hashable`                                 ``__hash__``
42:class:`Iterable`                                 ``__iter__``
43:class:`Iterator`          :class:`Iterable`      ``__next__``            ``__iter__``
44:class:`Reversible`        :class:`Iterable`      ``__reversed__``
45:class:`Generator`         :class:`Iterator`      ``send``, ``throw``     ``close``, ``__iter__``, ``__next__``
46:class:`Sized`                                    ``__len__``
47:class:`Callable`                                 ``__call__``
48:class:`Collection`        :class:`Sized`,        ``__contains__``,
49                           :class:`Iterable`,     ``__iter__``,
50                           :class:`Container`     ``__len__``
51
52:class:`Sequence`          :class:`Reversible`,   ``__getitem__``,        ``__contains__``, ``__iter__``, ``__reversed__``,
53                           :class:`Collection`    ``__len__``             ``index``, and ``count``
54
55:class:`MutableSequence`   :class:`Sequence`      ``__getitem__``,        Inherited :class:`Sequence` methods and
56                                                  ``__setitem__``,        ``append``, ``reverse``, ``extend``, ``pop``,
57                                                  ``__delitem__``,        ``remove``, and ``__iadd__``
58                                                  ``__len__``,
59                                                  ``insert``
60
61:class:`ByteString`        :class:`Sequence`      ``__getitem__``,        Inherited :class:`Sequence` methods
62                                                  ``__len__``
63
64:class:`Set`               :class:`Collection`    ``__contains__``,       ``__le__``, ``__lt__``, ``__eq__``, ``__ne__``,
65                                                  ``__iter__``,           ``__gt__``, ``__ge__``, ``__and__``, ``__or__``,
66                                                  ``__len__``             ``__sub__``, ``__xor__``, and ``isdisjoint``
67
68:class:`MutableSet`        :class:`Set`           ``__contains__``,       Inherited :class:`Set` methods and
69                                                  ``__iter__``,           ``clear``, ``pop``, ``remove``, ``__ior__``,
70                                                  ``__len__``,            ``__iand__``, ``__ixor__``, and ``__isub__``
71                                                  ``add``,
72                                                  ``discard``
73
74:class:`Mapping`           :class:`Collection`    ``__getitem__``,        ``__contains__``, ``keys``, ``items``, ``values``,
75                                                  ``__iter__``,           ``get``, ``__eq__``, and ``__ne__``
76                                                  ``__len__``
77
78:class:`MutableMapping`    :class:`Mapping`       ``__getitem__``,        Inherited :class:`Mapping` methods and
79                                                  ``__setitem__``,        ``pop``, ``popitem``, ``clear``, ``update``,
80                                                  ``__delitem__``,        and ``setdefault``
81                                                  ``__iter__``,
82                                                  ``__len__``
83
84
85:class:`MappingView`       :class:`Sized`                                 ``__len__``
86:class:`ItemsView`         :class:`MappingView`,                          ``__contains__``,
87                           :class:`Set`                                   ``__iter__``
88:class:`KeysView`          :class:`MappingView`,                          ``__contains__``,
89                           :class:`Set`                                   ``__iter__``
90:class:`ValuesView`        :class:`MappingView`                           ``__contains__``, ``__iter__``
91:class:`Awaitable`                                ``__await__``
92:class:`Coroutine`         :class:`Awaitable`     ``send``, ``throw``     ``close``
93:class:`AsyncIterable`                            ``__aiter__``
94:class:`AsyncIterator`     :class:`AsyncIterable` ``__anext__``           ``__aiter__``
95:class:`AsyncGenerator`    :class:`AsyncIterator` ``asend``, ``athrow``   ``aclose``, ``__aiter__``, ``__anext__``
96========================== ====================== ======================= ====================================================
97
98
99.. class:: Container
100           Hashable
101           Sized
102           Callable
103
104   ABCs for classes that provide respectively the methods :meth:`__contains__`,
105   :meth:`__hash__`, :meth:`__len__`, and :meth:`__call__`.
106
107.. class:: Iterable
108
109   ABC for classes that provide the :meth:`__iter__` method.
110   See also the definition of :term:`iterable`.
111
112.. class:: Collection
113
114   ABC for sized iterable container classes.
115
116   .. versionadded:: 3.6
117
118.. class:: Iterator
119
120   ABC for classes that provide the :meth:`~iterator.__iter__` and
121   :meth:`~iterator.__next__` methods.  See also the definition of
122   :term:`iterator`.
123
124.. class:: Reversible
125
126   ABC for iterable classes that also provide the :meth:`__reversed__`
127   method.
128
129   .. versionadded:: 3.6
130
131.. class:: Generator
132
133   ABC for generator classes that implement the protocol defined in
134   :pep:`342` that extends iterators with the :meth:`~generator.send`,
135   :meth:`~generator.throw` and :meth:`~generator.close` methods.
136   See also the definition of :term:`generator`.
137
138   .. versionadded:: 3.5
139
140.. class:: Sequence
141           MutableSequence
142           ByteString
143
144   ABCs for read-only and mutable :term:`sequences <sequence>`.
145
146   Implementation note: Some of the mixin methods, such as
147   :meth:`__iter__`, :meth:`__reversed__` and :meth:`index`, make
148   repeated calls to the underlying :meth:`__getitem__` method.
149   Consequently, if :meth:`__getitem__` is implemented with constant
150   access speed, the mixin methods will have linear performance;
151   however, if the underlying method is linear (as it would be with a
152   linked list), the mixins will have quadratic performance and will
153   likely need to be overridden.
154
155   .. versionchanged:: 3.5
156      The index() method added support for *stop* and *start*
157      arguments.
158
159.. class:: Set
160           MutableSet
161
162   ABCs for read-only and mutable sets.
163
164.. class:: Mapping
165           MutableMapping
166
167   ABCs for read-only and mutable :term:`mappings <mapping>`.
168
169.. class:: MappingView
170           ItemsView
171           KeysView
172           ValuesView
173
174   ABCs for mapping, items, keys, and values :term:`views <dictionary view>`.
175
176.. class:: Awaitable
177
178   ABC for :term:`awaitable` objects, which can be used in :keyword:`await`
179   expressions.  Custom implementations must provide the :meth:`__await__`
180   method.
181
182   :term:`Coroutine` objects and instances of the
183   :class:`~collections.abc.Coroutine` ABC are all instances of this ABC.
184
185   .. note::
186      In CPython, generator-based coroutines (generators decorated with
187      :func:`types.coroutine` or :func:`asyncio.coroutine`) are
188      *awaitables*, even though they do not have an :meth:`__await__` method.
189      Using ``isinstance(gencoro, Awaitable)`` for them will return ``False``.
190      Use :func:`inspect.isawaitable` to detect them.
191
192   .. versionadded:: 3.5
193
194.. class:: Coroutine
195
196   ABC for coroutine compatible classes.  These implement the
197   following methods, defined in :ref:`coroutine-objects`:
198   :meth:`~coroutine.send`, :meth:`~coroutine.throw`, and
199   :meth:`~coroutine.close`.  Custom implementations must also implement
200   :meth:`__await__`.  All :class:`Coroutine` instances are also instances of
201   :class:`Awaitable`.  See also the definition of :term:`coroutine`.
202
203   .. note::
204      In CPython, generator-based coroutines (generators decorated with
205      :func:`types.coroutine` or :func:`asyncio.coroutine`) are
206      *awaitables*, even though they do not have an :meth:`__await__` method.
207      Using ``isinstance(gencoro, Coroutine)`` for them will return ``False``.
208      Use :func:`inspect.isawaitable` to detect them.
209
210   .. versionadded:: 3.5
211
212.. class:: AsyncIterable
213
214   ABC for classes that provide ``__aiter__`` method.  See also the
215   definition of :term:`asynchronous iterable`.
216
217   .. versionadded:: 3.5
218
219.. class:: AsyncIterator
220
221   ABC for classes that provide ``__aiter__`` and ``__anext__``
222   methods.  See also the definition of :term:`asynchronous iterator`.
223
224   .. versionadded:: 3.5
225
226.. class:: AsyncGenerator
227
228   ABC for asynchronous generator classes that implement the protocol
229   defined in :pep:`525` and :pep:`492`.
230
231   .. versionadded:: 3.6
232
233
234These ABCs allow us to ask classes or instances if they provide
235particular functionality, for example::
236
237    size = None
238    if isinstance(myvar, collections.abc.Sized):
239        size = len(myvar)
240
241Several of the ABCs are also useful as mixins that make it easier to develop
242classes supporting container APIs.  For example, to write a class supporting
243the full :class:`Set` API, it is only necessary to supply the three underlying
244abstract methods: :meth:`__contains__`, :meth:`__iter__`, and :meth:`__len__`.
245The ABC supplies the remaining methods such as :meth:`__and__` and
246:meth:`isdisjoint`::
247
248    class ListBasedSet(collections.abc.Set):
249        ''' Alternate set implementation favoring space over speed
250            and not requiring the set elements to be hashable. '''
251        def __init__(self, iterable):
252            self.elements = lst = []
253            for value in iterable:
254                if value not in lst:
255                    lst.append(value)
256
257        def __iter__(self):
258            return iter(self.elements)
259
260        def __contains__(self, value):
261            return value in self.elements
262
263        def __len__(self):
264            return len(self.elements)
265
266    s1 = ListBasedSet('abcdef')
267    s2 = ListBasedSet('defghi')
268    overlap = s1 & s2            # The __and__() method is supported automatically
269
270Notes on using :class:`Set` and :class:`MutableSet` as a mixin:
271
272(1)
273   Since some set operations create new sets, the default mixin methods need
274   a way to create new instances from an iterable. The class constructor is
275   assumed to have a signature in the form ``ClassName(iterable)``.
276   That assumption is factored-out to an internal classmethod called
277   :meth:`_from_iterable` which calls ``cls(iterable)`` to produce a new set.
278   If the :class:`Set` mixin is being used in a class with a different
279   constructor signature, you will need to override :meth:`_from_iterable`
280   with a classmethod that can construct new instances from
281   an iterable argument.
282
283(2)
284   To override the comparisons (presumably for speed, as the
285   semantics are fixed), redefine :meth:`__le__` and :meth:`__ge__`,
286   then the other operations will automatically follow suit.
287
288(3)
289   The :class:`Set` mixin provides a :meth:`_hash` method to compute a hash value
290   for the set; however, :meth:`__hash__` is not defined because not all sets
291   are hashable or immutable.  To add set hashability using mixins,
292   inherit from both :meth:`Set` and :meth:`Hashable`, then define
293   ``__hash__ = Set._hash``.
294
295.. seealso::
296
297   * `OrderedSet recipe <https://code.activestate.com/recipes/576694/>`_ for an
298     example built on :class:`MutableSet`.
299
300   * For more about ABCs, see the :mod:`abc` module and :pep:`3119`.
301