Introduction to Metaclasses

What is a metaclass?

In Python, everything is an object: integers, strings, lists, even functions and classes themselves are objects. And every object is an instance of a class.

To check the class of an object x, one can call type(x), so:

>>> type(5)
<type 'int'>
>>> type(str)
<type 'type'>
>>> type([1, 2, 3])
<type 'list'>

>>> class C(object):
...     pass
...
>>> type(C)
<type 'type'>

Most classes in python are instances of type. type itself is also a class. Such classes whose instances are also classes are called metaclasses.

The Simplest Metaclass

OK, so there is already one metaclass in Python: type. Can we create another one?

class SimplestMetaclass(type):
    pass

class MyClass(object):
    __metaclass__ = SimplestMetaclass

That does not add any functionality, but it is a new metaclass, see that MyClass is now an instance of SimplestMetaclass:

>>> type(MyClass)
<class '__main__.SimplestMetaclass'>

A Metaclass which does Something

A metaclass which does something usually overrides type’s __new__, to modify some properties of the class to be created, before calling the original __new__ which creates the class:

class AnotherMetaclass(type):
    def __new__(cls, name, parents, dct):
        # cls is this class
        # name is the name of the class to be created
        # parents is the list of the class's parent classes
        # dct is the list of class's attributes (methods, static variables)

        # here all of the attributes can be modified before creating the class, e.g.

        dct['x'] = 8  # now the class will have a static variable x = 8

        # return value is the new class. super will take care of that
        return super(AnotherMetaclass, cls).__new__(cls, name, parents, dct)

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