Mimicking functionality of built-in types

Question

I am curious if there is a way to mimic the same kind of functionality as built-in types with custom classes. The best way to explain what I am looking for is with an example.

class MyClass(object):

    def __init__(self, val):
        self._returnVal = val

myObject = MyClass('test')
print myObject

Rather than the above code returning:

<__main__.MyClass object at 0x023861F0>

Is there a way to get it so when we call on the object it automatically returns self._returnVal, but also still allows us to call the methods that exist on myObject?

srgerg · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-12 04:38:21Z

2

You could override the __repr__ method:

class MyClass(object):
    def __init__(self, val):
        self._returnVal = val
    def __repr__(self):
        return self._returnVal

Now if I instantiate the class I get:

>>> myObject = MyClass('test')
>>> print myObject
test

edited Dec 12, 2011 at 4:38

answered Dec 12, 2011 at 4:32

srgerg

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1 Comment

Mathieson Over a year ago

That is great. Thanks! I had been wondering what repr was for.

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