Dataclasses and property decorator

Currently, the best way I found was to overwrite the dataclass fields by property in a separate child class.

from dataclasses import dataclass, field

@dataclass
class _A:
    x: int = 0

class A(_A):
    @property
    def x(self) -> int:
        return self._x

    @x.setter
    def x(self, value: int):
        self._x = value

The class behave like a regular dataclass. And will correctly define the __repr__ and __init__ field (A(x=4) instead of A(_x=4). The drawback is that the properties cannot be read-only.

This blog post, tries to overwrite the wheels dataclass attribute by the property of the same name.
However, the @property overwrite the default field, which leads to unexpected behavior.

from dataclasses import dataclass, field

@dataclass
class A:

    x: int

    # same as: `x = property(x)  # Overwrite any field() info`
    @property
    def x(self) -> int:
        return self._x

    @x.setter
    def x(self, value: int):
        self._x = value

A()  # `A(x=<property object at 0x7f0cf64e5fb0>)`   Oups

print(A.__dataclass_fields__)  # {'x': Field(name='x',type=<class 'int'>,default=<property object at 0x>,init=True,repr=True}

One way solve this, while avoiding inheritance would be to overwrite the field outside the class definition, after the dataclass metaclass has been called.

@dataclass
class A:
  x: int

def x_getter(self):
  return self._x

def x_setter(self, value):
  self._x = value

A.x = property(x_getter)
A.x = A.x.setter(x_setter)

print(A(x=1))
print(A())  # missing 1 required positional argument: 'x'

It should probably possible to overwrite this automatically by creating some custom metaclass and setting some field(metadata={'setter': _x_setter, 'getter': _x_getter}).

Some wrapping could be good:

#         DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE 
#                     Version 2, December 2004 
# 
#  Copyright (C) 2020 Xu Siyuan <[email protected]> 
# 
#  Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified 
#  copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long 
#  as the name is changed. 
# 
#             DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE 
#    TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION 
# 
#   0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.

from dataclasses import dataclass, field

MISSING = object()
__all__ = ['property_field', 'property_dataclass']


class property_field:
    def __init__(self, fget=None, fset=None, fdel=None, doc=None, **kwargs):
        self.field = field(**kwargs)
        self.property = property(fget, fset, fdel, doc)

    def getter(self, fget):
        self.property = self.property.getter(fget)
        return self

    def setter(self, fset):
        self.property = self.property.setter(fset)
        return self

    def deleter(self, fdel):
        self.property = self.property.deleter(fdel)
        return self


def property_dataclass(cls=MISSING, / , **kwargs):
    if cls is MISSING:
        return lambda cls: property_dataclass(cls, **kwargs)
    remembers = {}
    for k in dir(cls):
        if isinstance(getattr(cls, k), property_field):
            remembers[k] = getattr(cls, k).property
            setattr(cls, k, getattr(cls, k).field)
    result = dataclass(**kwargs)(cls)
    for k, p in remembers.items():
        setattr(result, k, p)
    return result

You can use it like this:

@property_dataclass
class B:
    x: int = property_field(default_factory=int)

    @x.getter
    def x(self):
        return self._x

    @x.setter
    def x(self, value):
        self._x = value

From the ideas from above, I created a class decorator function resolve_abc_prop that creates a new class containing the getter and setter functions as suggested
by @shmee.

def resolve_abc_prop(cls):
    def gen_abstract_properties():
        """ search for abstract properties in super classes """

        for class_obj in cls.__mro__:
            for key, value in class_obj.__dict__.items():
                if isinstance(value, property) and value.__isabstractmethod__:
                    yield key, value

    abstract_prop = dict(gen_abstract_properties())

    def gen_get_set_properties():
        """ for each matching data and abstract property pair, 
            create a getter and setter method """

        for class_obj in cls.__mro__:
            if '__dataclass_fields__' in class_obj.__dict__:
                for key, value in class_obj.__dict__['__dataclass_fields__'].items():
                    if key in abstract_prop:
                        def get_func(self, key=key):
                            return getattr(self, f'__{key}')

                        def set_func(self, val, key=key):
                            return setattr(self, f'__{key}', val)

                        yield key, property(get_func, set_func)

    get_set_properties = dict(gen_get_set_properties())

    new_cls = type(
        cls.__name__,
        cls.__mro__,
        {**cls.__dict__, **get_set_properties},
    )

    return new_cls

Here we define a data class AData and a mixin AOpMixin implementing operations
on the data.

from dataclasses import dataclass, field, replace
from abc import ABC, abstractmethod


class AOpMixin(ABC):
    @property
    @abstractmethod
    def x(self) -> int:
        ...

    def __add__(self, val):
        return replace(self, x=self.x + val)

Finally, the decorator resolve_abc_prop is then used to create a new class
with the data from AData and the operations from AOpMixin.

@resolve_abc_prop
@dataclass
class A(AOpMixin):
    x: int

A(x=4) + 2   # A(x=6)

EDIT #1: I created a python package that makes it possible to overwrite abstract properties with a dataclass: dataclass-abc

Following a very thorough post about data classes and properties that can be found here the TL;DR version which solves some very ugly cases where you have to call MyClass(_my_var=2) and strange __repr__ outputs:

from dataclasses import field, dataclass

@dataclass
class Vehicle:

    wheels: int
    _wheels: int = field(init=False, repr=False)

    def __init__(self, wheels: int):
       self._wheels = wheels

    @property
    def wheels(self) -> int:
         return self._wheels

    @wheels.setter
    def wheels(self, wheels: int):
        self._wheels = wheels

An @property is typically used to store a seemingly public argument (e.g. name) into a private attribute (e.g. _name) through getters and setters, while dataclasses generate the __init__() method for you.
The problem is that this generated __init__() method should interface through the public argument name, while internally setting the private attribute _name.
This is not done automatically by dataclasses.

In order to have the same interface (through name) for setting values and creation of the object, the following strategy can be used (Based on this blogpost, which also provides more explanation):

from dataclasses import dataclass, field

@dataclass
class Test:
    name: str
    _name: str = field(init=False, repr=False)

    @property
    def name(self) -> str:
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, name: str) -> None:
        self._name = name

This can now be used as one would expect from a dataclass with a data member name:

my_test = Test(name='foo')
my_test.name = 'bar'
my_test.name('foobar')
print(my_test.name)

The above implementation does the following things:

• The name class member will be used as the public interface, but it actually does not really store anything
• The _name class member stores the actual content. The assignment with field(init=False, repr=False) makes sure that the @dataclass decorator ignores it when constructing the __init__() and __repr__() methods.
• The getter/setter for name actually returns/sets the content of _name
• The initializer generated through the @dataclass will use the setter that we just defined. It will not initialize _name explicitly, because we told it not to do so.

TWO VERSIONS THAT SUPPORT DEFAULT VALUES

Most published approaches don’t provide a readable way to set a default value for the property, which is quite an important part of dataclass. Here are two possible ways to do that.

The first way is based on the approach referenced by @JorenV. It defines the default value in _name = field() and utilises the observation that if no initial value is specified, then the setter is passed the property object itself:

from dataclasses import dataclass, field


@dataclass
class Test:
    name: str
    _name: str = field(init=False, repr=False, default='baz')

    @property
    def name(self) -> str:
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, value: str) -> None:
        if type(value) is property:
            # initial value not specified, use default
            value = Test._name
        self._name = value


def main():
    obj = Test(name='foo')
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='foo')

    obj = Test()
    obj.name = 'bar'
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='bar')

    obj = Test()
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='baz')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

The second way is based on the same approach as @Conchylicultor: bypassing the dataclass machinery by overwriting the field outside the class definition.

Personally I think this way is cleaner and more readable than the first because it follows the normal dataclass idiom to define the default value and requires no ‘magic’ in the setter.

Even so I’d prefer everything to be self-contained… perhaps some clever person can find a way to incorporate the field update in dataclass.__post_init__() or similar?

from dataclasses import dataclass


@dataclass
class Test:
    name: str = 'foo'

    @property
    def _name(self):
        return self._my_str_rev[::-1]

    @_name.setter
    def _name(self, value):
        self._my_str_rev = value[::-1]


# --- has to be called at module level ---
Test.name = Test._name


def main():

    obj = Test()
    print(obj)                      # displays: Test(name='foo')

    obj = Test()
    obj.name = 'baz'
    print(obj)                      # displays: Test(name='baz')

    obj = Test(name='bar')
    print(obj)                      # displays: Test(name='bar')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Here’s what I did to define the field as a property in __post_init__. This is a total hack, but it works with dataclasses dict-based initialization and even with marshmallow_dataclasses.

from dataclasses import dataclass, field, asdict


@dataclass
class Test:
    name: str = "schbell"
    _name: str = field(init=False, repr=False)

    def __post_init__(self):
        # Just so that we don't create the property a second time.
        if not isinstance(getattr(Test, "name", False), property):
            self._name = self.name
            Test.name = property(Test._get_name, Test._set_name)

    def _get_name(self):
        return self._name

    def _set_name(self, val):
        self._name = val


if __name__ == "__main__":
    t1 = Test()
    print(t1)
    print(t1.name)
    t1.name = "not-schbell"
    print(asdict(t1))

    t2 = Test("llebhcs")
    print(t2)
    print(t2.name)
    print(asdict(t2))

This would print:

Test(name='schbell')
schbell
{'name': 'not-schbell', '_name': 'not-schbell'}
Test(name='llebhcs')
llebhcs
{'name': 'llebhcs', '_name': 'llebhcs'}

I actually started off from this blog post mentioned somewhere in this SO, but ran into the issue that the dataclass field was being set to type property because the decorator is applied to the class. That is,

@dataclass
class Test:
    name: str = field(default='something')
    _name: str = field(init=False, repr=False)

    @property
    def name():
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, val):
        self._name = val

would make name to be of type property and not str. So, the setter will actually receive property object as the argument instead of the field default.

After trying different suggestions from this thread I’ve come with a little modified version of @Samsara Apathika answer. In short: I removed the "underscore" field variable from the __init__ (so it is available for internal use, but not seen by asdict() or by __dataclass_fields__).

from dataclasses import dataclass, InitVar, field, asdict

@dataclass
class D:
    a: float = 10.                # Normal attribut with a default value
    b: InitVar[float] = 20.       # init-only attribute with a default value 
    c: float = field(init=False)  # an attribute that will be defined in __post_init__
    
    def __post_init__(self, b):
        if not isinstance(getattr(D, "a", False), property):
            print('setting `a` to property')
            self._a = self.a
            D.a = property(D._get_a, D._set_a)
        
        print('setting `c`')
        self.c = self.a + b
        self.d = 50.
    
    def _get_a(self):
        print('in the getter')
        return self._a
    
    def _set_a(self, val):
        print('in the setter')
        self._a = val


if __name__ == "__main__":
    d1 = D()
    print(asdict(d1))
    print('n')
    d2 = D()
    print(asdict(d2))

Gives:

setting `a` to property
setting `c`
in the getter
in the getter
{'a': 10.0, 'c': 30.0}


in the setter
setting `c`
in the getter
in the getter
{'a': 10.0, 'c': 30.0}

Here’s another way which allows you to have fields without a leading underscore:

from dataclasses import dataclass


@dataclass
class Person:
    name: str = property

    @name
    def name(self) -> str:
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, value) -> None:
        self._name = value

    def __post_init__(self) -> None:
        if isinstance(self.name, property):
            self.name = 'Default'

The result is:

print(Person().name)  # Prints: 'Default'
print(Person('Joel').name)  # Prints: 'Joel'
print(repr(Person('Jane')))  # Prints: Person(name='Jane')

This method of using properties in dataclasses also works with asdict and is simpler too. Why? Fields that are typed with ClassVar are ignored by the dataclass, but we can still use them in our properties.

@dataclass
def SomeData:
    uid: str
    _uid: ClassVar[str]

    @property
    def uid(self) -> str:
        return self._uid

    @uid.setter
    def uid(self, uid: str) -> None:
        self._uid = uid

A solution with minimal additional code and no hidden variables is to override the __setattr__ method to do any checks on the field:

@dataclass
class Test:
    x: int = 1

    def __setattr__(self, prop, val):
        if prop == "x":
            self._check_x(val)
        super().__setattr__(prop, val)

    @staticmethod
    def _check_x(x):
        if x <= 0:
            raise ValueError("x must be greater than or equal to zero")

Ok, so this is my first attempt at having everything self-contained within the class.

I tried a couple different approaches, including having a class decorator right next to @dataclass above the class definition. The issue with the decorator version is that my IDE complains if I decide to use it, and then I lose most of the type hints that the dataclass decorator provides. For example, if I’m trying to pass a field name into the constructor method, it doesn’t auto-complete anymore when I add a new class decorator. I suppose that makes sense since the IDE assumes a decorator overwrites the original definition in some important way, however that succeeded in convincing me not to try with the decorator approach.

I ended up adding a metaclass to update the properties associated with dataclass fields to check if the value passed to the setter is a property object as mentioned by a few other solutions, and that seems to be working well enough now. Either of the two approaches below should work for testing (based on @Martin CR‘s solution)

from dataclasses import dataclass, field


@dataclass
class Test(metaclass=dataclass_property_support):
    name: str = property
    _name: str = field(default='baz', init=False, repr=False)

    @name
    def name(self) -> str:
        return self._name

    @name.setter
    def name(self, value: str) -> None:
        self._name = value

    # --- other properties like these should not be affected ---
    @property
    def other_prop(self) -> str:
        return self._other_prop

    @other_prop.setter
    def other_prop(self, value):
        self._other_prop = value

And here is an approach which (implicitly) maps the property _name that begins with an underscore to the dataclass field name:

@dataclass
class Test(metaclass=dataclass_property_support):
    name: str = 'baz'

    @property
    def _name(self) -> str:
        return self._name[::-1]

    @_name.setter
    def _name(self, value: str):
        self._name = value[::-1]

I personally prefer the latter approach, because it looks a little cleaner in my opinion and also the field _name doesn’t show up when invoking the dataclass helper function asdict for example.

The below should work for testing purposes with either of the approaches above. The best part is my IDE doesn’t complain about any of the code either.

def main():
    obj = Test(name='foo')
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='foo')

    obj = Test()
    obj.name = 'bar'
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='bar')

    obj = Test()
    print(obj)                  # displays: Test(name='baz')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Finally, here is the definition for the metaclass dataclass_property_support that now seems to be working:

from dataclasses import MISSING, Field
from functools import wraps
from typing import Dict, Any, get_type_hints


def dataclass_property_support(*args, **kwargs):
    """Adds support for using properties with default values in dataclasses."""
    cls = type(*args, **kwargs)

    # the args passed in to `type` will be a tuple of (name, bases, dict)
    cls_dict: Dict[str, Any] = args[2]

    # this accesses `__annotations__`, but should also work with sub-classes
    annotations = get_type_hints(cls)

    def get_default_from_annotation(field_: str):
        """Get the default value for the type annotated on a field"""
        default_type = annotations.get(field_)
        try:
            return default_type()
        except TypeError:
            return None

    for f, val in cls_dict.items():

        if isinstance(val, property):
            public_f = f.lstrip('_')

            if val.fset is None:
                # property is read-only, not settable
                continue

            if f not in annotations and public_f not in annotations:
                # adding this to check if it's a regular property (not
                # associated with a dataclass field)
                continue

            try:
                # Get the value of the field named without a leading underscore
                default = getattr(cls, public_f)
            except AttributeError:
                # The public field is probably type-annotated but not defined
                #   i.e. my_var: str
                default = get_default_from_annotation(public_f)
            else:
                if isinstance(default, property):
                    # The public field is a property
                    # Check if the value of underscored field is a dataclass
                    # Field. If so, we can use the `default` if one is set.
                    f_val = getattr(cls, '_' + f, None)
                    if isinstance(f_val, Field) 
                            and f_val.default is not MISSING:
                        default = f_val.default
                    else:
                        default = get_default_from_annotation(public_f)

            def wrapper(fset, initial_val):
                """
                Wraps the property `setter` method to check if we are passed
                in a property object itself, which will be true when no
                initial value is specified (thanks to @Martin CR).

                """
                @wraps(fset)
                def new_fset(self, value):
                    if isinstance(value, property):
                        value = initial_val
                    fset(self, value)
                return new_fset

            # Wraps the `setter` for the property
            val = val.setter(wrapper(val.fset, default))

            # Replace the value of the field without a leading underscore
            setattr(cls, public_f, val)

            # Delete the property if the field name starts with an underscore
            # This is technically not needed, but it supports cases where we
            # define an attribute with the same name as the property, i.e.
            #    @property
            #    def _wheels(self)
            #        return self._wheels
            if f.startswith('_'):
                delattr(cls, f)

    return cls

Update (10/2021):

I’ve managed to encapsulate the above logic – including support for additional edge cases – into the helper library dataclass-wizard, in case this is of interest to anyone. You can find out more about using field properties in the linked documentation as well. Happy coding!

Update (11/2021):

A more performant approach is to use a metaclass to generate a __post_init__() on the class that only runs once to fix field properties so it works with dataclasses. You can check out the gist here which I added. I was able to test it out and when creating multiple class instances, this approach is optimized as it sets everything up properly the first time __post_init__() is run.

Just put the field definition after the property:

@dataclasses.dataclass
class Test:
    @property
    def driver(self):
        print("In driver getter")
        return self._driver

    @driver.setter
    def driver(self, value):
        print("In driver setter")
        self._driver = value

    _driver: typing.Optional[str] =
        dataclasses.field(init=False, default=None, repr=False)
    driver: typing.Optional[str] =
       dataclasses.field(init=False, default=driver)

>>> t = Test(1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: __init__() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given
>>> t = Test()
>>> t._driver is None
True
>>> t.driver is None
In driver getter
True
>>> t.driver = "asdf"
In driver setter
>>> t._driver == "asdf"
True
>>> t
In driver getter
Test(driver='asdf')

I’m surprised this isn’t already an answer but I question its wisdom. The only reason for this answer is to include the property in the representation – because the property’s backing store (_driver) is already included in comparison tests and equality tests and so on. For example, this is a common idiom:

class Test:
    def __init__(self):
        self._driver = "default"

    @property
    def driver(self):
        if self._driver == "default":
            self._driver = "new"
        return self._driver

>>> t = Test()
>>> t
<__main__.Test object at 0x6fffffec11f0>
>>> t._driver
'default'
>>> t.driver
'new'

Here is the dataclass equivalent – except that it adds the property to the representation. In the standard class, the result of (t._driver,t.driver) is ("default","new"). Notice that the result from the dataclass is instead ("new","new"). This is a very simple example but you must recognize that including properties with possible side effects in special methods may not be the best idea.

@dataclasses.dataclass
class Test:
    @property
    def driver(self):
        print("In driver getter")
        if self._driver == "default":
            self._driver = "new"
        return self._driver

    _driver: typing.Optional[str] =
        dataclasses.field(init=False, default="default", repr=False)

    driver: typing.Optional[str] =
       dataclasses.field(init=False, default=driver)

>>> t = Test()
>>> t
In driver getter
Test(driver='new')
>>> t._driver
'new'
>>> t.driver
In driver getter
'new'

So I would recommend just using:

@dataclasses.dataclass
class Test:
    _driver: typing.Optional[str] =
        dataclasses.field(init=False, default="default", repr=False)

    @property
    def driver(self):
        print("In driver getter")
        if self._driver == "default":
            self._driver = "new"
        return self._driver

>>> t
Test()
>>> t._driver
'default'
>>> t.driver
In driver getter
'new'

And you can sidestep the entire issue, avoiding dataclasses for initialization, by simply using hasattr in the property getter.

@dataclasses.dataclass
class Test:
    @property
    def driver(self):
        print("In driver getter")
        if not hasattr(self, "_driver"):
            self._driver = "new"
        return self._driver

Or by using __post_init__:

@dataclasses.dataclass
class Test:
    def __post_init__(self):
        self._driver = None

    @property
    def driver(self):
        print("In driver getter")
        if self._driver is None:
            self._driver = "new"
        return self._driver

Why do this? Because init=False dataclass defaults are stored only on the class and not the instance.

For the use case that brought me to this page, namely to have a dataclass that is immutable, there is a simple option to use @dataclass(frozen=True). This removes all the rather verbose explicit definition of getters and setters. The option eq=True is helpful too.

Credit: a reply from joshorr to this post, linked in a comment to the accepted answer. Also a bit of a classical case of RTFM.

I use this idiom to get around the default value during __init__ problem. Returning None from __set__ if a property object is passed in (as is the case during __init__) will keep the initial default value untouched. Defining the default value of the private attribute as that of the previously defined public attribute, ensures the private attribute is available. Type hints are shown with the correct default value, and the comments silence the pylint and mypy warnings:

from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from pprint import pprint
from typing import Any

class dataclass_property(property): # pylint: disable=invalid-name

    def __set__(self, __obj: Any, __value: Any) -> None:
        if isinstance(__value, self.__class__):
            return None
        return super().__set__(__obj, __value)

@dataclass
class Vehicle:

    wheels: int = 1
    _wheels: int = field(default=wheels, init=False, repr=False)

    @dataclass_property # type: ignore
    def wheels(self) -> int:
        print("Get wheels")
        return self._wheels

    @wheels.setter # type: ignore
    def wheels(self, val: int):
        print("Set wheels to", val)
        self._wheels = val


if __name__ == "__main__":
    pprint(Vehicle())
    pprint('#####')
    pprint(Vehicle(wheels=4))

Output:

└─ $ python wheels.py 
Get wheels
Vehicle(wheels=1)
'#####'
Set wheels to 4
Get wheels
Vehicle(wheels=4)

Type hint:

Type hint with correct default value

I went through the previous comments, and although most of them answer thet need to tweak the dataclass itself.
I came up with an approach using a decorator which I think is more concise:

from dataclasses import dataclass
import wrapt



def dataclass_properties(cls, property_starts='_'):
    
    @wrapt.decorator
    def wrapper(wrapped, instance, args, kwargs):
        properties = [prop for prop in dir(cls) if isinstance(getattr(cls, prop), property)]
        new_kwargs = {f"{property_starts}{k}" if k in properties else k: v for k, v in kwargs.items()}
        return wrapped(*args, **new_kwargs)
    return  wrapt.FunctionWrapper(cls, wrapper)()


@dataclass_properties
@dataclass
class State:
    _a: int
    b: int
    _c: int

    @property
    def a(self):
        return self._a

    @a.setter
    def time(self, value):
        self._a = value


if __name__=='__main__':
    s = State(b=1,a=2,_c=1)
    print(s)                 # returns: State(_a=2, b=1, _c=1)
    print(s.a)               # returns: 2

It can filter between properties and those variables that are not properties but start by "_".
It also supports the instantiation providing the property true name. In this case "_a".

if __name__=='__main__':
    s = State(b=1,_a=2,_c=1) 
    print(s)                 # returns: State(_a=2, b=1, _c=1)

I does not solve the problem of the representation though.