python properties and inheritance

I agree with your solution, which seems an on-the-fly template method.
This article deals with your problem and provides exactly your solution.

Yes, this is the way to do it; the property declaration executes at the time the parent class’ definition is executed, which means it can only “see” the versions of the methods which exist on the parent class. So when you redefine one or more of those methods on a child class, you need to re-declare the property using the child class’ version of the method(s).

Something like this will work

class HackedProperty(object):
    def __init__(self, f):
        self.f = f
    def __get__(self, inst, owner):    
        return getattr(inst, self.f.__name__)()

class Foo(object):
    def _get_age(self):
        return 11
    age = HackedProperty(_get_age)

class Bar(Foo):
    def _get_age(self):
        return 44

print Bar().age
print Foo().age

Another way to do it, without having to create any additional classes. I’ve added a set method to show what you do if you only override one of the two:

class Foo(object):
    def _get_age(self):
        return 11

    def _set_age(self, age):
        self._age = age

    age = property(_get_age, _set_age)


class Bar(Foo):
    def _get_age(self):
        return 44

    age = property(_get_age, Foo._set_age)

This is a pretty contrived example, but you should get the idea.

I don’t agree that the chosen answer is the ideal way to allow for overriding the property methods. If you expect the getters and setters to be overridden, then you can use lambda to provide access to self, with something like lambda self: self.<property func>.

This works (at least) for Python versions 2.4 to 3.6.

If anyone knows a way to do this with by using property as a decorator instead of as a direct property() call, I’d like to hear it!

Example:

class Foo(object):
    def _get_meow(self):
        return self._meow + ' from a Foo'
    def _set_meow(self, value):
        self._meow = value
    meow = property(fget=lambda self: self._get_meow(),
                    fset=lambda self, value: self._set_meow(value))

This way, an override can be easily performed:

class Bar(Foo):
    def _get_meow(self):
        return super(Bar, self)._get_meow() + ', altered by a Bar'

so that:

>>> foo = Foo()
>>> bar = Bar()
>>> foo.meow, bar.meow = "meow", "meow"
>>> foo.meow
"meow from a Foo"
>>> bar.meow
"meow from a Foo, altered by a Bar"

I discovered this on geek at play.

I ran into problems setting a property in a parent class from a child class. The following workround extends a property of a parent but does so by calling the _set_age method of the parent directly. Wrinkled should always be correct. It is a little javathonic though.

import threading


class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self._age = 0

    def _get_age(self):
        return self._age

    def _set_age(self, age):
        self._age = age

    age = property(_get_age, _set_age)


class ThreadsafeFoo(Foo):

    def __init__(self):
        super(ThreadsafeFoo, self).__init__()
        self.__lock = threading.Lock()
        self.wrinkled = False

    def _get_age(self):
        with self.__lock:
             return super(ThreadsafeFoo, self).age

    def _set_age(self, value):
        with self.__lock:
            self.wrinkled = True if value > 40 else False
            super(ThreadsafeFoo, self)._set_age(value)

    age = property(_get_age, _set_age)

Same as @mr-b‘s but with decorator.

class Foo(object):
    def _get_meow(self):
        return self._meow + ' from a Foo'
    def _set_meow(self, value):
        self._meow = value
    @property
    def meow(self):
        return self._get_meow()
    @meow.setter
    def meow(self, value):
        self._set_meow(value)

This way, an override can be easily performed:

class Bar(Foo):
    def _get_meow(self):
        return super(Bar, self)._get_meow() + ', altered by a Bar'

class Foo:
    # Template method
    @property
    def age(self):
        return self.dothis()
    # Hook method of TM is accessor method of property at here
    def dothis(self):
        return 11
class Bar(Foo):
    def dothis(self):
        return 44

Same as Nizam Mohamed, just to mention that style guide 2.13.4 using both template method and property

A possible workaround might look like:

class Foo:
    def __init__(self, age):
        self.age = age

    @property
    def age(self):
        print('Foo: getting age')
        return self._age

    @age.setter
    def age(self, value):
        print('Foo: setting age')
        self._age = value


class Bar(Foo):
    def __init__(self, age):
        self.age = age

    @property
    def age(self):
        return super().age

    @age.setter
    def age(self, value):
        super(Bar, Bar).age.__set__(self, value)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    f = Foo(11)
    print(f.age)
    b = Bar(44)
    print(b.age)

It prints

Foo: setting age
Foo: getting age
11
Foo: setting age
Foo: getting age
44

Got the idea from “Python Cookbook” by David Beazley & Brian K. Jones.
Using Python 3.5.3 on Debian GNU/Linux 9.11 (stretch)

I think the answer from Vladimir Zolotykh is nearly optimal.
For my unterstanding a slightly better variant might be calling the constructer of the superclass.
Resulting in the following code:

class Foo:
    def __init__(self, age):
        self.age = age

    @property
    def age(self):
        print("Foo: getting age")
        return self._age

    @age.setter
    def age(self, value):
        print("Foo: setting age")
        self._age = value


class Bar(Foo):
    def __init__(self, age):
        super().__init__(age)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    a = Foo(11)
    print(a.age)
    b = Bar(44)
    print(b.age)

With this solution, there is no need to reeimplement the property for the subclass. Just tell the subclass, that it should behave like the superclass by using the constructor.

The upper lines result in the following output

Foo: setting age
Foo: getting age
11
Foo: setting age
Foo: getting age
44

with python3.