Passing 'self' parameter during methods decorating in Python

Question

I want to create decorator that shows which parameters were passed to function and methods. I have already written the code for functions, but methods are giving me a headaches.

This is function decorator that works as intended:

from functools import update_wrapper


class _PrintingArguments:
    def __init__(self, function, default_comment, comment_variable):
        self.function = function
        self.comment_variable = comment_variable
        self.default_comment = default_comment
        update_wrapper(wrapped=function, wrapper=self)

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        comment = kwargs.pop(self.comment_variable, self.default_comment)
        params_str = [repr(arg) for arg in args] + ["{}={}".format(k, repr(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items()]
        function_call_log = "{}({})".format(self.function.__name__, ", ".join(params_str))
        print("Function execution - '{}'\n\t{}".format(comment, function_call_log))
        function_return = self.function(*args, **kwargs)
        print("\tFunction executed\n")
        return function_return


def function_log(_function=None, default_comment="No comment.", comment_variable="comment"):
    if _function is None:
        def decorator(func):
            return _PrintingArguments(function=func, default_comment=default_comment, comment_variable=comment_variable)
        return decorator
    else:
        return _PrintingArguments(function=_function, default_comment=default_comment, comment_variable=comment_variable)

# example use:
@function_log
def a(*args, **kwargs):
    pass


@function_log(default_comment="Hello World!", comment_variable="comment2")
def b(*args, **kwargs):
    pass


a(0, x=1, y=2)
a(0, x=1, y=2, comment="Custom comment!")

b("a", "b", "c", asd="something")
b("a", "b", "c", asd="something", comment2="Custom comment for b!")

Output of the code execution:

Function execution - 'No comment.'
    a(0, y=2, x=1)
    Function executed

Function execution - 'Custom comment!'
    a(0, y=2, x=1)
    Function executed

Function execution - 'Hello World!'
    b('a', 'b', 'c', asd='something')
    Function executed

Function execution - 'Custom comment for b!'
    b('a', 'b', 'c', asd='something')
    Function executed

I have tried the exactly same decorator for methods:

class A:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    @function_log
    def method1(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print("\tself = {}".format(self))

    @function_log(default_comment="Something", comment_variable="comment2")
    def method2(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print("\tself = {}".format(self))

a_obj = A()

a_obj.method1(0, 1, p1="abc", p2="xyz")
a_obj.method1(0, 1, p1="abc", p2="xyz", comment="My comment")

a_obj.method2("a", "b", p1="abc", p2="xyz")
a_obj.method2("a", "b", p1="abc", p2="xyz", comment="My comment 2")

The output is:

Function execution - 'No comment.'
    method1(0, 1, p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = 0
    Function executed

Function execution - 'My comment'
    method1(0, 1, p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = 0
    Function executed

Function execution - 'Something'
    method2('a', 'b', p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = a
    Function executed

Function execution - 'Something'
    method2('a', 'b', comment='My comment 2', p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = a
    Function executed

Parameter 'self' is not passed by my decorator to the method.
I want to write second decorator 'method_log' that would work pretty similar as 'function_log'. For code:

class A:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    @method_log
    def method1(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print("\tself = {}".format(self))

    @fmethod_log(default_comment="Something", comment_variable="comment2")
    def method2(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print("\tself = {}".format(self))

a_obj = A()

a_obj.method1(0, 1, p1="abc", p2="xyz")
a_obj.method1(0, 1, p1="abc", p2="xyz", comment="My comment")

a_obj.method2("a", "b", p1="abc", p2="xyz")
a_obj.method2("a", "b", p1="abc", p2="xyz", comment="My comment 2")

I want the output:

Method execution - 'No comment.'
    method1(<__main__.A instance at ...>, 0, 1, p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = <__main__.A instance at ...> #
    Function executed

Method execution - 'My comment'
    method1(<__main__.A instance at ...>, 0, 1, p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = <__main__.A instance at ...>
    Function executed

Method execution - 'Something'
    method2(<__main__.A instance at ...>, 'a', 'b', p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = <__main__.A instance at ...>
    Function executed

Method execution - 'Something'
    method2(<__main__.A instance at ...>, 'a', 'b', comment='My comment 2', p2='xyz', p1='abc')
    self = <__main__.A instance at ...>
    Function executed

Answer 1

It's not working with you current design because of how classes work in Python.

When a class is instantiated, the functions on it get bound to the instance - they become bound methods, so that self is automatically passed.

You can see it happen:

class A:
    def method1(self):
        pass

>>> A.method1
<function A.method1 at 0x7f303298ef28>
>>> a_instance = A()
>>> a_instance.method1
<bound method A.method1 of <__main__.A object at 0x7f303a36c518>>

When A is instantiated, method1 is magically transformed from a function into a bound method.

Your decorator replaces method1 - instead of a real function, it is now an instance of _PrintingArguments. The magic that turns functions into bound methods is not applied to random objects, even if they define __call__ so that they behave like a function. (But that magic can be applied, if your class implements the Descriptor protocol, see ShadowRanger's answer!).

class Decorator:
    def __init__(self, func):
        self.func = func

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.func(*args, **kwargs)


class A:
    @Decorator
    def method1(self):
        pass

>>> A.method1
<__main__.Decorator object at 0x7f303a36cbe0>
>>> a_instance = A()
>>> a_instance.method1
<__main__.Decorator object at 0x7f303a36cbe0>

There is no magic. method1 on the instance of A is not a bound method, it's just a random object with a __call__ method, which will not have self passed automatically.

If you want to decorate methods you have to replace the decorated function with another real function, an arbitrary object with __call__ will not do.

You could adapt your current code to return a real function:

import functools

class _PrintingArguments:
    def __init__(self, default_comment, comment_variable):
        self.comment_variable = comment_variable
        self.default_comment = default_comment

    def __call__(self, function):
        @functools.wraps(function)
        def decorated(*args, **kwargs):
            comment = kwargs.pop(self.comment_variable, self.default_comment)
            params_str = [repr(arg) for arg in args] + ["{}={}".format(k, repr(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items()]
            function_call_log = "{}({})".format(function.__name__, ", ".join(params_str))
            print("Function execution - '{}'\n\t{}".format(comment, function_call_log))
            function_return = function(*args, **kwargs)
            print("\tFunction executed\n")
            return function_return
        return decorated

def function_log(_function=None, default_comment="No comment.", comment_variable="comment"):
    decorator = _PrintingArguments(
        default_comment=default_comment,
        comment_variable=comment_variable,
    )
    if _function is None:
        return decorator
    else:
        return decorator(_function)

Answer 2

If you want _PrintingArguments to bind the same way as a plain function, this is actually possible, you just need to implement the descriptor protocol yourself to match the way built-in functions behave. Conveniently, Python provides types.MethodType, which can be used to create a bound method from any callable, given an instance to bind to, so we use that to implement our descriptor's __get__:

import types

class _PrintingArguments:
    # __init__ and __call__ unchanged

    def __get__(self, instance, owner):
        if instance is None:
            return self  # Accessed from class, return unchanged
        return types.MethodType(self, instance)  # Accessed from instance, bind to instance

This works as you expect on Python 3 (Try it online!). On Python 2 it's even simpler (because unbound methods exist, so the call to types.MethodType can be made unconditionally):

import types

class _PrintingArguments(object):  # Explicit inheritance from object needed for new-style class on Py2
    # __init__ and __call__ unchanged

    def __get__(self, instance, owner):
        return types.MethodType(self, instance, owner)  # Also pass owner

Try it online!

For slightly better performance (on Python 2 only), you could instead do:

class _PrintingArguments(object):  # Explicit inheritance from object needed for new-style class on Py2
    # __init__ and __call__ unchanged

# Defined outside class, immediately after dedent
_PrintingArguments.__get__ = types.MethodType(types.MethodType, None, _PrintingArguments)

which moves the implementation of __get__ to the C layer by making an unbound method out of types.MethodType itself, removing byte code interpreter overhead from each call.