Preserving signatures of decorated functions

Solution 1:

1. Install decorator module:

   $ pip install decorator
   

2. Adapt definition of args_as_ints():

   import decorator
   
   @decorator.decorator
   def args_as_ints(f, *args, **kwargs):
       args = [int(x) for x in args]
       kwargs = dict((k, int(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items())
       return f(*args, **kwargs)
   
   @args_as_ints
   def funny_function(x, y, z=3):
       """Computes x*y + 2*z"""
       return x*y + 2*z
   
   print funny_function("3", 4.0, z="5")
   # 22
   help(funny_function)
   # Help on function funny_function in module __main__:
   # 
   # funny_function(x, y, z=3)
   #     Computes x*y + 2*z
   

Python 3.4+

functools.wraps() from stdlib preserves signatures since Python 3.4:

import functools


def args_as_ints(func):
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        args = [int(x) for x in args]
        kwargs = dict((k, int(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items())
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper


@args_as_ints
def funny_function(x, y, z=3):
    """Computes x*y + 2*z"""
    return x*y + 2*z


print(funny_function("3", 4.0, z="5"))
# 22
help(funny_function)
# Help on function funny_function in module __main__:
#
# funny_function(x, y, z=3)
#     Computes x*y + 2*z

functools.wraps() is available at least since Python 2.5 but it does not preserve the signature there:

help(funny_function)
# Help on function funny_function in module __main__:
#
# funny_function(*args, **kwargs)
#    Computes x*y + 2*z

Notice: *args, **kwargs instead of x, y, z=3.

Solution 2:

This is solved with Python's standard library functools and specifically functools.wraps function, which is designed to "update a wrapper function to look like the wrapped function". It's behaviour depends on Python version, however, as shown below. Applied to the example from the question, the code would look like:

from functools import wraps

def args_as_ints(f):
    @wraps(f) 
    def g(*args, **kwargs):
        args = [int(x) for x in args]
        kwargs = dict((k, int(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items())
        return f(*args, **kwargs)
    return g


@args_as_ints
def funny_function(x, y, z=3):
    """Computes x*y + 2*z"""
    return x*y + 2*z

When executed in Python 3, this would produce the following:

>>> funny_function("3", 4.0, z="5")
22
>>> help(funny_function)
Help on function funny_function in module __main__:

funny_function(x, y, z=3)
    Computes x*y + 2*z

Its only drawback is that in Python 2 however, it doesn't update function's argument list. When executed in Python 2, it will produce:

>>> help(funny_function)
Help on function funny_function in module __main__:

funny_function(*args, **kwargs)
    Computes x*y + 2*z

Solution 3:

There is a decorator module with decorator decorator you can use:

@decorator
def args_as_ints(f, *args, **kwargs):
    args = [int(x) for x in args]
    kwargs = dict((k, int(v)) for k, v in kwargs.items())
    return f(*args, **kwargs)

Then the signature and help of the method is preserved:

>>> help(funny_function)
Help on function funny_function in module __main__:

funny_function(x, y, z=3)
    Computes x*y + 2*z

EDIT: J. F. Sebastian pointed out that I didn't modify args_as_ints function -- it is fixed now.