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Three Decorators Commonly Used in Python Custom Classes

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Introduction

Overview of Decorators

Decorators are a unique feature in Python that is not too common among other programming languages. As implied by its name, the job of a decorator is to modify another function’s behavior without affecting the decorated function’s core functionality.

Using a metaphor, let’s say the to-be-decorated function is a plain donut. You can conceptualize decorators as different coatings for the donut. No matter what the coating is — sugar, chocolate, honeybee, or whatever, a donut is still a kind of fried ring-shaped dough food.

Let’s forget about donuts (already feel wanting some sweets?) and move on to an actual example of a simple Python decorator. Through the example, we can have some ideas about what the decoration means.

>>> # Define a decorator function
>>> def show_start_end(func):
...      def inner_func():
...          print(f"Before calling func {func.__name__}")
...          func()
...          print(f"After calling func {func.__name__}")
...      return inner_func
...