Why is the deconstructor not automatically being called? - python-3.x

I'm working on an assignment for school and having some difficulty understanding the __del__ method. I understand that it is called after all the references to the object are deleted, but I'm not exactly sure how to get to that point. It states that the __del__ method should be called automatically, but I'm having a rough time even getting the del() to automatically call __del__ as I understand it should.
I've tried to manually call the del method and have tried looking at various sample coding. Something is just not clicking with me for this. The only way I can some-what get it to be called is by using this piece of code at the end:
for faq in faqs:
Faq.__del__(faq)
But I know that is not correct.
class Faq:
def __init__(self, question, answer):
self.question = question
self.answer = answer
return
def print_faq(self):
print('\nQuestion: {}'.format(self.question))
print('Answer: {}'.format(self.answer))
def __del__(self):
print('\nQuestion: {}'.format(self.question))
print('FAQ deleted')
faqs = []
faq1 = Faq('Does this work?', 'Yes.')
faqs.append(faq1)
faq2 = Faq('What about now?', 'Still yes.')
faqs.append(faq2)
faq3 = Faq('Should I give up?', 'Nope!')
faqs.append(faq3)
print("FAQ's:")
print('='*30)
for faq in faqs:
obj = Faq.print_faq(faq)
print()
print('='*30)
I expect the code to output the __del__ print statements to verify the code ran.

The method __del__ is called
when the instance is about to be destroyed
This happens when there are no more references to it.
del x doesn’t directly call x.__del__() — the former decrements the reference count for x by one, and the latter is only called when x’s reference count reaches zero.
So the reason you don't see the expected prints is because each Faq object has 2 references to it:
The variable it is assigned to (faq1, faq2 ...)
A reference from the list faqs
So doing del faq1 is not enough as this will only leave one last reference from the list. To delete those references too, you can do del faqs[:].
As to the code posted here, I am guessing you expect to see the prints because when the program finishes all resources are released. Well that is true, but:
It is not guaranteed that __del__() methods are called for objects that still exist when the interpreter exits.

You bind faqN and faqs and you keep these references. You need to destroy bindings.
For example:
faq1 = None # del faq1
faq2 = None
faq3 = None
faqs = None # [] or del faqs

Related

QCheckbox issue [duplicate]

I am struggling to get this working.
I tried to transpose from a c++ post into python with no joy:
QMessageBox with a "Do not show this again" checkbox
my rough code goes like:
from PyQt5 import QtWidgets as qtw
...
mb = qtw.QMessageBox
cb = qtw.QCheckBox
# following 3 lines to get over runtime errors
# trying to pass the types it was asking for
# and surely messing up
mb.setCheckBox(mb(), cb())
cb.setText(cb(), "Don't show this message again")
cb.show(cb())
ret = mb.question(self,
'Close application',
'Do you really want to quit?',
mb.Yes | mb.No )
if ret == mb.No:
return
self.close()
the above executes with no errors but the checkbox ain't showing (the message box does).
consider that I am genetically stupid... and slow, very slow.
so please go easy on my learning curve
When trying to "port" code, it's important to know the basis of the source language and have a deeper knowledge of the target.
For instance, taking the first lines of your code and the referenced question:
QCheckBox *cb = new QCheckBox("Okay I understand");
The line above in C++ means that a new object (cb) of type QCheckBox is being created, and it's assigned the result of QCheckBox(...), which returns an instance of that class. To clarify how objects are declared, here's how a simple integer variable is created:
int mynumber = 10
This is because C++, like many languages, requires the object type for its declaration.
In Python, which is a dynamic typing language, this is not required (but it is possible since Python 3.6), but you still need to create the instance, and this is achieved by using the parentheses on the class (which results in calling it and causes both calling __new__ and then __init__). The first two lines of your code then should be:
mb = qtw.QMessageBox()
cb = qtw.QCheckBox()
Then, the problem is that you're calling the other methods with new instances of the above classes everytime.
An instance method (such as setCheckBox) is implicitly called with the instance as first argument, commonly known as self.
checkboxInstance = QCheckBox()
checkboxInstance.setText('My checkbox')
# is actually the result of:
QCheckBox.setText(checkboxInstance, 'My checkbox')
The last line means, more or less: call the setText function of the class QCheckBox, using the instance and the text as its arguments.
In fact, if QCheckBox was an actual python class, setText() would look like this:
class QCheckBox:
def setText(self, text):
self.text = text
When you did cb = qtw.QCheckBox you only created another reference to the class, and everytime you do cb() you create a new instance; the same happens for mb, since you created another reference to the message box class.
The following line:
mb.setCheckBox(mb(), cb())
is the same as:
QMessageBox.setCheckBox(QMessageBox(), QCheckBox())
Since you're creating new instances every time, the result is absolutely nothing: there's no reference to the new instances, and they will get immediately discarded ("garbage collected", aka, deleted) after that line is processed.
This is how the above should actually be done:
mb = qtw.QMessageBox()
cb = qtw.QCheckBox()
mb.setCheckBox(cb)
cb.setText("Don't show this message again")
Now, there's a fundamental flaw in your code: question() is a static method (actually, for Python, it's more of a class method). Static and class methods are functions that don't act on an instance, but only on/for a class. Static methods of QMessageBox like question or warning create a new instance of QMessageBox using the provided arguments, so everything you've done before on the instance you created is completely ignored.
These methods are convenience functions that allow simple creation of message boxes without the need to write too much code. Since those methods only allow customization based on their arguments (which don't include adding a check box), you obviously cannot use them, and you must code what they do "under the hood" explicitly.
Here is how the final code should look:
# create the dialog with a parent, which will make it *modal*
mb = qtw.QMessageBox(self)
mb.setWindowTitle('Close application')
mb.setText('Do you really want to quit?')
# you can set the text on a checkbox directly from its constructor
cb = qtw.QCheckBox("Don't show this message again")
mb.setCheckBox(cb)
mb.setStandardButtons(mb.Yes | mb.No)
ret = mb.exec_()
# call some function that stores the checkbox state
self.storeCloseWarning(cb.isChecked())
if ret == mb.No:
return
self.close()

How do I return a dataframe object from a thread

I had previously asked this question by may not have been clear enough on my explanation of my particular situation. My previous question was voted as a duplicate of how to get the return value from a thread in python?
Perhaps I should have explained more. I had already read and tried the referenced thread, but nothing that I did from there seemed to work. (I could be just implementing it incorrectly).
My main class that does all the work and data transformation is:
class SolrPull(object):
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
self.var1 = kwargs['var1'] if 'var1' in kwargs else 'this'
self.var2 = kwargs['var2'] if 'var2' in kwargs else 'that'
def solr_main(self):
#This is where the main data transformation takes place.
return(self.flattened_df)
I need to create multiple objects and have them pull from a Solr database and transform data synchronously in different threads.
My arguments must be passed to the SolrPull class, not to the solr_main function.
I need to wait for those returns before continuing with processing.
I tried a couple of different answers from the referenced thread, but nothing worked.
Using the accepted answer for that thread, I did:
class TierPerf(object):
def pull_current(self):
pool = ThreadPool(processes=5)
CustomerRecv_df_result = pool.apply_async(SolrPull(var1='this', var2='that').solr_main())
APS_df_result = pool.apply_async(SolrPull(var1='this', var2='that').solr_main())
self.CustomerRecv_df = CustomerRecv_df_result.get()
self.APS_df = APS_df_result.get()
But the pulls and transformation do not happen synchronously.
Then when I do the .get(), I get the error 'DataFrame object is not callable'.
As an end result, I need to be able to synchronously call SolrPull(*args).solr_main() and return pandas dataframe that will then be used for further processing.
Well, after all the struggle and pain over that, I finally figured out my specifics after posting this question.
I went back to my original solution and then just set my desired dataframe (self.CustomerRecv_df) to the return dataframes attribute (CustomerRecv_df.flattened_df).
class TierPerf(object):
def pull_current(self):
thread_list = []
CustomerRecv_df = SolrPull(var1='this', var2='that')
tr_CustomerRecv_df = threading.Thread(name='Customerrecev_tier', target=CustomerRecv_df.solr_main)
thread_list.append(tr_CustomerRecv_df)
APS_df = SolrPull(var1='this', var2='other')
tr_APS_df = threading.Thread(name='APS_tier', target=APS_df.solr_main)
thread_list.append(tr_APS_df)
for thread in thread_list:
print('Starting', thread)
thread.start()
for thread in thread_list:
print('Joining', thread)
thread.join()
self.CustomerRecv_df = CustomerRecv_df.flattened_df
self.APS_df = APS_df.flattened_df

Creating a list of Class objects from a file with no duplicates in attributes of the objects

I am currently taking some computer science courses in school and have come to a dead end and need a little help. Like the title says, I need of create a list of Class objects from a file with objects that have a duplicate not added to the list, I was able to successfully do this with a python set() but apparently that isn't allowed for this particular assignment, I have tried various other ways but can't seem to get it working without using a set. I believe the point of this assignment is comparing data structures in python and using the slowest method possible as it also has to be timed. my code using the set() will be provided.
import time
class Students:
def __init__(self, LName, FName, ssn, email, age):
self.LName = LName
self.FName = FName
self.ssn = ssn
self.email = email
self.age = age
def getssn(self):
return self.ssn
def main():
t1 = time.time()
f = open('InsertNames.txt', 'r')
studentlist = []
seen = set()
for line in f:
parsed = line.split(' ')
parsed = [i.strip() for i in parsed]
if parsed[2] not in seen:
studentlist.append(Students(parsed[0], parsed[1], parsed[2], parsed[3], parsed[4]))
seen.add(parsed[2])
else:
print(parsed[2], 'already in list, not added')
f.close()
print('final list length: ', len(studentlist))
t2 = time.time()
print('time = ', t2-t1)
main()
A note, that the only duplicates to be checked for are those of the .ssn attribute and the duplicate should not be added to the list. Is there a way to check what is already in the list by that specific attribute before adding it?
edit: Forgot to mention only 1 list allowed in memory.
You can write
if not any(s.ssn==parsed[2] for s in studentlist):
without committing to this comparison as the meaning of ==. At this level of work, you probably are expected to write out the loop and set a flag yourself rather than use a generator expression.
Since you already took the time to write a class representing a student and since ssn is a unique identifier for the instances, consider writing an __eq__ method for that class.
def __eq__(self, other):
return self.ssn == other.ssn
This will make your life easier when you want to compare two students, and in your case make a list (specifically not a set) of students.
Then your code would look something like:
with open('InsertNames.txt') as f:
for line in f:
student = Student(*line.strip().split())
if student not in student_list:
student_list.append(student)
Explanation
Opening a file with with statement makes your code more clean and
gives it the ability to handle errors and do cleanups correctly. And
since 'r' is a default for open it doesn't need to be there.
You should strip the line before splitting it just to handle some
edge cases but this is not obligatory.
split's default argument is ' ' so again it isn't necessary.
Just to clarify the meaning of this item is that the absence of a parameter make the split use whitespaces. It does not mean that a single space character is the default.
Creating the student before adding it to the list sounds like too
much overhead for this simple use but since there is only one
__init__ method called it is not that bad. The plus side of this
is that it makes the code more readable with the not in statement.
The in statement (and also not in of course) checks if the
object is in that list with the __eq__ method of that object.
Since you implemented that method it can check the in statement
for your Student class instances.
Only if the student doesn't exist in the list, it will be added.
One final thing, there is no creation of a list here other than the return value of split and the student_list you created.

Python 3.5 asyncio execute coroutine on event loop from synchronous code in different thread

I am hoping someone can help me here.
I have an object that has the ability to have attributes that return coroutine objects. This works beautifully, however I have a situation where I need to get the results of the coroutine object from synchronous code in a separate thread, while the event loop is currently running. The code I came up with is:
def get_sync(self, key: str, default: typing.Any=None) -> typing.Any:
"""
Get an attribute synchronously and safely.
Note:
This does nothing special if an attribute is synchronous. It only
really has a use for asynchronous attributes. It processes
asynchronous attributes synchronously, blocking everything until
the attribute is processed. This helps when running SQL code that
cannot run asynchronously in coroutines.
Args:
key (str): The Config object's attribute name, as a string.
default (Any): The value to use if the Config object does not have
the given attribute. Defaults to None.
Returns:
Any: The vale of the Config object's attribute, or the default
value if the Config object does not have the given attribute.
"""
ret = self.get(key, default)
if asyncio.iscoroutine(ret):
if loop.is_running():
loop2 = asyncio.new_event_loop()
try:
ret = loop2.run_until_complete(ret)
finally:
loop2.close()
else:
ret = loop.run_until_complete(ret)
return ret
What I am looking for is a safe way to synchronously get the results of a coroutine object in a multithreaded environment. self.get() can return a coroutine object, for attributes I have set to provide them. The issues I have found are: If the event loop is running or not. After searching for a few hours on stack overflow and a few other sites, my (broken) solution is above. If the loop is running, I make a new event loop and run my coroutine in the new event loop. This works, except that the code hangs forever on the ret = loop2.run_until_complete(ret) line.
Right now, I have the following scenarios with results:
results of self.get() is not a coroutine
Returns results. [Good]
results of self.get() is a coroutine & event loop is not running (basically in same thread as the event loop)
Returns results. [Good]
results of self.get() is a coroutine & event loop is running (basically in a different thread than the event loop)
Hangs forever waiting for results. [Bad]
Does anyone know how I can go about fixing the bad result so I can get the value I need? Thanks.
I hope I made some sense here.
I do have a good, and valid reason to be using threads; specifically I am using SQLAlchemy which is not async and I punt the SQLAlchemy code to a ThreadPoolExecutor to handle it safely. However, I need to be able to query these asynchronous attributes from within these threads for the SQLAlchemy code to get certain configuration values safely. And no, I won't switch away from SQLAlchemy to another system just in order to accomplish what I need, so please do not offer alternatives to it. The project is too far along to switch something so fundamental to it.
I tried using asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe() and loop.call_soon_threadsafe() and both failed. So far, this has gotten the farthest on making it work, I feel like I am just missing something obvious.
When I get a chance, I will write some code that provides an example of the problem.
Ok, I implemented an example case, and it worked the way I would expect. So it is likely my problem is elsewhere in the code. Leaving this open and will change the question to fit my real problem if I need.
Does anyone have any possible ideas as to why a concurrent.futures.Future from asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe() would hang forever rather than return a result?
My example code that does not duplicate my error, unfortunately, is below:
import asyncio
import typing
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
class ConfigSimpleAttr:
__slots__ = ('value', '_is_async')
def __init__(
self,
value: typing.Any,
is_async: bool=False
):
self.value = value
self._is_async = is_async
async def _get_async(self):
return self.value
def __get__(self, inst, cls):
if self._is_async and loop.is_running():
return self._get_async()
else:
return self.value
class BaseConfig:
__slots__ = ()
attr1 = ConfigSimpleAttr(10, True)
attr2 = ConfigSimpleAttr(20, True)
def get(self, key: str, default: typing.Any=None) -> typing.Any:
return getattr(self, key, default)
def get_sync(self, key: str, default: typing.Any=None) -> typing.Any:
ret = self.get(key, default)
if asyncio.iscoroutine(ret):
if loop.is_running():
fut = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(ret, loop)
print(fut, fut.running())
ret = fut.result()
else:
ret = loop.run_until_complete(ret)
return ret
config = BaseConfig()
def example_func():
return config.get_sync('attr1')
async def main():
a1 = await loop.run_in_executor(None, example_func)
a2 = await config.attr2
val = a1 + a2
print('{a1} + {a2} = {val}'.format(a1=a1, a2=a2, val=val))
return val
loop.run_until_complete(main())
This is the stripped down version of exactly what my code is doing, and the example works, even if my actual application doesn't. I am stuck as far as where to look for answers. Suggestions are welcome as to where to try to track down my "stuck forever" problem, even if my code above doesn't actually duplicate the problem.
It is very unlikely that you need to run several event loops at the same time, so this part looks quite wrong:
if loop.is_running():
loop2 = asyncio.new_event_loop()
try:
ret = loop2.run_until_complete(ret)
finally:
loop2.close()
else:
ret = loop.run_until_complete(ret)
Even testing whether the loop is running or not doesn't seem to be the right approach. It's probably better to give explicitly the (only) running loop to get_sync and schedule the coroutine using run_coroutine_threadsafe:
def get_sync(self, key, loop):
ret = self.get(key, default)
if not asyncio.iscoroutine(ret):
return ret
future = asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(ret, loop)
return future.result()
EDIT: Hanging problems can be related to tasks being scheduled in the wrong loop (e.g. forgetting about the optional loop argument when calling a coroutine). This kind of problem should be easier to debug with the PR 303 (now merged): a RuntimeError is raised instead when the loop and the future don't match. So you might want to run your tests with the latest version of asyncio.
Ok, I got my code working, by taking a different approach to it. The problem was tied with using something that had file IO, which I was converting into a coroutine using loop.run_in_executor() on the file IO components. Then, I was trying to use this in a sync function being called from another thread, processed using another loop.run_in_executor() on that function. This is a very important routine in my code (called probably a million times or more during the execution of my short-running code), and I made a decision that my logic was just getting too complicated. So... I uncomplicated it. Now, if I want to use the file IO components asynchronously, I explicitly use my "get_async()" method, otherwise, I use my attribute through normal attribute access.
By removing the complexity of my logic, it made the code cleaner, easier to understand, and even more importantly, it actually works. While I am not 100% certain that I know the root cause of the issue (I believe it has something to do with a thread processing an attribute, which then in turn starts another thread that tries to read the attribute before it is processed, which caused something like a race condition and halting my code, but I could never duplicate the error outside of my application unfortunately to completely prove it out), I was able to get past it and continue with my development efforts.

Object deletes reference to self

Does Python interpreter gracefully handles cases where an object instance deletes the last reference to itself?
Consider the following (admittedly useless) module:
all_instances = []
class A(object):
def __init__(self):
global all_instances
all_instances.append(self)
def delete_me(self):
global all_instances
self.context = "I'm still here"
all_instances.remove(self)
print self.context
and now the usage:
import the_module
a = the_module.A()
the_deletion_func = a.delete_me
del a
the_deletion_func()
This would still print I'm still here, but is there a race condition with Python's garbage collector which is about to collect the object instance?Does the reference to the object's function save the day?Does the interpreter keep references to the object whose code it is currently executing until it finishes?
No, there isn't any such race condition. You are clearing the reference, so the ref count drops to 1 and the object will be cleaned up once you delete the method reference.
The the_deletion_func reference points to a method, which points to the instance (as well as the class), so there is still a reference there.
Currently executing methods have a local variable self, which is a reference to the instance as well, but mostly it's the method wrapper that provides that reference.

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