Dynamic/runtime method creation (code generation) in Python

I need to generate code for a method at runtime. It's important to be able to run arbitrary code and have a docstring.

I came up with a solution combining exec and setattr, here's a dummy example:

class Viking(object):
    def __init__(self):
        code = '''
            def dynamo(self, arg):
                """ dynamo's a dynamic method!
                """
                self.weight += 1
                return arg * self.weight
            '''
        self.weight = 50

        d = {}
        exec code.strip() in d
        setattr(self.__class__, 'dynamo', d['dynamo'])


if __name__ == "__main__":
    v = Viking()
    print v.dynamo(10)
    print v.dynamo(10)
    print v.dynamo.__doc__

Is there a better / safer / more idiomatic way of achieving the same result?

Solution 1:

Based on Theran's code, but extending it to methods on classes:

class Dynamo(object):
    pass

def add_dynamo(cls,i):
    def innerdynamo(self):
        print "in dynamo %d" % i
    innerdynamo.__doc__ = "docstring for dynamo%d" % i
    innerdynamo.__name__ = "dynamo%d" % i
    setattr(cls,innerdynamo.__name__,innerdynamo)

for i in range(2):
    add_dynamo(Dynamo, i)

d=Dynamo()
d.dynamo0()
d.dynamo1()

Which should print:

in dynamo 0
in dynamo 1

Solution 2:

Function docstrings and names are mutable properties. You can do anything you want in the inner function, or even have multiple versions of the inner function that makedynamo() chooses between. No need to build any code out of strings.

Here's a snippet out of the interpreter:

>>> def makedynamo(i):
...     def innerdynamo():
...         print "in dynamo %d" % i
...     innerdynamo.__doc__ = "docstring for dynamo%d" % i
...     innerdynamo.__name__ = "dynamo%d" % i
...     return innerdynamo

>>> dynamo10 = makedynamo(10)
>>> help(dynamo10)
Help on function dynamo10 in module __main__:

dynamo10()
    docstring for dynamo10