Common Object Structures — Python documentation
Common Object Structures
There are a large number of structures which are used in the definition of object types for Python. This section describes these structures and how they are used.
All Python objects ultimately share a small number of fields at the beginning of the object’s representation in memory. These are represented by the PyObject and PyVarObject types, which are defined, in turn, by the expansions of some macros also used, whether directly or indirectly, in the definition of all other Python objects.
- type PyObject
- All object types are extensions of this type. This is a type which contains the information Python needs to treat a pointer to an object as an object. In a normal “release” build, it contains only the object’s reference count and a pointer to the corresponding type object. Nothing is actually declared to be a PyObject, but every pointer to a Python object can be cast to a
PyObject*
. Access to the members must be done by using the macros Py_REFCNT and Py_TYPE.
- type PyVarObject
- This is an extension of PyObject that adds the
ob_size
field. This is only used for objects that have some notion of length. This type does not often appear in the Python/C API. Access to the members must be done by using the macros Py_REFCNT, Py_TYPE, and Py_SIZE.
- PyObject_HEAD
This is a macro used when declaring new types which represent objects without a varying length. The PyObject_HEAD macro expands to:
PyObject ob_base;
See documentation of PyObject above.
- PyObject_VAR_HEAD
This is a macro used when declaring new types which represent objects with a length that varies from instance to instance. The PyObject_VAR_HEAD macro expands to:
PyVarObject ob_base;
See documentation of PyVarObject above.
- Py_TYPE(o)
This macro is used to access the
ob_type
member of a Python object. It expands to:(((PyObject*)(o))->ob_type)
- Py_REFCNT(o)
This macro is used to access the
ob_refcnt
member of a Python object. It expands to:(((PyObject*)(o))->ob_refcnt)
- Py_SIZE(o)
This macro is used to access the
ob_size
member of a Python object. It expands to:(((PyVarObject*)(o))->ob_size)
- PyObject_HEAD_INIT(type)
This is a macro which expands to initialization values for a new PyObject type. This macro expands to:
_PyObject_EXTRA_INIT 1, type,
- PyVarObject_HEAD_INIT(type, size)
This is a macro which expands to initialization values for a new PyVarObject type, including the
ob_size
field. This macro expands to:_PyObject_EXTRA_INIT 1, type, size,
- type PyCFunction
- Type of the functions used to implement most Python callables in C. Functions of this type take two
PyObject*
parameters and return one such value. If the return value isNULL
, an exception shall have been set. If notNULL
, the return value is interpreted as the return value of the function as exposed in Python. The function must return a new reference.
- type PyCFunctionWithKeywords
- Type of the functions used to implement Python callables in C with signature
METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS
.
- type _PyCFunctionFast
- Type of the functions used to implement Python callables in C with signature METH_FASTCALL.
- type _PyCFunctionFastWithKeywords
- Type of the functions used to implement Python callables in C with signature
METH_FASTCALL | METH_KEYWORDS
.
- type PyMethodDef
Structure used to describe a method of an extension type. This structure has four fields:
Field
C Type
Meaning
ml_name
const char *
name of the method
ml_meth
PyCFunction
pointer to the C implementation
ml_flags
int
flag bits indicating how the call should be constructed
ml_doc
const char *
points to the contents of the docstring
The ml_meth
is a C function pointer. The functions may be of different types, but they always return PyObject*
. If the function is not of the PyCFunction, the compiler will require a cast in the method table. Even though PyCFunction defines the first parameter as PyObject*
, it is common that the method implementation uses the specific C type of the self object.
The ml_flags
field is a bitfield which can include the following flags. The individual flags indicate either a calling convention or a binding convention.
There are four basic calling conventions for positional arguments and two of them can be combined with METH_KEYWORDS
to support also keyword arguments. So there are a total of 6 calling conventions:
- METH_VARARGS
- This is the typical calling convention, where the methods have the type PyCFunction. The function expects two
PyObject*
values. The first one is the self object for methods; for module functions, it is the module object. The second parameter (often called args) is a tuple object representing all arguments. This parameter is typically processed using PyArg_ParseTuple() or PyArg_UnpackTuple().
- METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS
- Methods with these flags must be of type PyCFunctionWithKeywords. The function expects three parameters: self, args, kwargs where kwargs is a dictionary of all the keyword arguments or possibly
NULL
if there are no keyword arguments. The parameters are typically processed using PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords().
- METH_FASTCALL
Fast calling convention supporting only positional arguments. The methods have the type _PyCFunctionFast. The first parameter is self, the second parameter is a C array of
PyObject*
values indicating the arguments and the third parameter is the number of arguments (the length of the array).This is not part of the limited API.
New in version 3.7.
- METH_FASTCALL | METH_KEYWORDS
Extension of METH_FASTCALL supporting also keyword arguments, with methods of type _PyCFunctionFastWithKeywords. Keyword arguments are passed the same way as in the vectorcall protocol: there is an additional fourth
PyObject*
parameter which is a tuple representing the names of the keyword arguments or possiblyNULL
if there are no keywords. The values of the keyword arguments are stored in the args array, after the positional arguments.This is not part of the limited API.
New in version 3.7.
- METH_NOARGS
- Methods without parameters don’t need to check whether arguments are given if they are listed with the METH_NOARGS flag. They need to be of type PyCFunction. The first parameter is typically named self and will hold a reference to the module or object instance. In all cases the second parameter will be
NULL
.
- METH_O
- Methods with a single object argument can be listed with the METH_O flag, instead of invoking PyArg_ParseTuple() with a
"O"
argument. They have the type PyCFunction, with the self parameter, and aPyObject*
parameter representing the single argument.
These two constants are not used to indicate the calling convention but the binding when use with methods of classes. These may not be used for functions defined for modules. At most one of these flags may be set for any given method.
- METH_CLASS
- The method will be passed the type object as the first parameter rather than an instance of the type. This is used to create class methods, similar to what is created when using the classmethod() built-in function.
- METH_STATIC
- The method will be passed
NULL
as the first parameter rather than an instance of the type. This is used to create static methods, similar to what is created when using the staticmethod() built-in function.
One other constant controls whether a method is loaded in place of another definition with the same method name.
- METH_COEXIST
- The method will be loaded in place of existing definitions. Without METH_COEXIST, the default is to skip repeated definitions. Since slot wrappers are loaded before the method table, the existence of a sq_contains slot, for example, would generate a wrapped method named
__contains__()
and preclude the loading of a corresponding PyCFunction with the same name. With the flag defined, the PyCFunction will be loaded in place of the wrapper object and will co-exist with the slot. This is helpful because calls to PyCFunctions are optimized more than wrapper object calls.
- type PyMemberDef
Structure which describes an attribute of a type which corresponds to a C struct member. Its fields are:
Field
C Type
Meaning
name
const char *
name of the member
type
int
the type of the member in the C struct
offset
Py_ssize_t
the offset in bytes that the member is located on the type’s object struct
flags
int
flag bits indicating if the field should be read-only or writable
doc
const char *
points to the contents of the docstring
type
can be one of manyT_
macros corresponding to various C types. When the member is accessed in Python, it will be converted to the equivalent Python type.Macro name
C type
T_SHORT
short
T_INT
int
T_LONG
long
T_FLOAT
float
T_DOUBLE
double
T_STRING
const char *
T_OBJECT
PyObject *
T_OBJECT_EX
PyObject *
T_CHAR
char
T_BYTE
char
T_UBYTE
unsigned char
T_UINT
unsigned int
T_USHORT
unsigned short
T_ULONG
unsigned long
T_BOOL
char
T_LONGLONG
long long
T_ULONGLONG
unsigned long long
T_PYSSIZET
Py_ssize_t
T_OBJECT
andT_OBJECT_EX
differ in thatT_OBJECT
returnsNone
if the member isNULL
andT_OBJECT_EX
raises an AttributeError. Try to useT_OBJECT_EX
overT_OBJECT
becauseT_OBJECT_EX
handles use of the del statement on that attribute more correctly thanT_OBJECT
.flags
can be0
for write and read access orREADONLY
for read-only access. UsingT_STRING
for type impliesREADONLY
.T_STRING
data is interpreted as UTF-8. OnlyT_OBJECT
andT_OBJECT_EX
members can be deleted. (They are set toNULL
).
- type PyGetSetDef
Structure to define property-like access for a type. See also description of the PyTypeObject.tp_getset slot.
Field
C Type
Meaning
name
const char *
attribute name
get
getter
C Function to get the attribute
set
setter
optional C function to set or delete the attribute, if omitted the attribute is readonly
doc
const char *
optional docstring
closure
void *
optional function pointer, providing additional data for getter and setter
The
get
function takes onePyObject*
parameter (the instance) and a function pointer (the associatedclosure
):typedef PyObject *(*getter)(PyObject *, void *);
It should return a new reference on success or
NULL
with a set exception on failure.set
functions take twoPyObject*
parameters (the instance and the value to be set) and a function pointer (the associatedclosure
):typedef int (*setter)(PyObject *, PyObject *, void *);
In case the attribute should be deleted the second parameter is
NULL
. Should return0
on success or-1
with a set exception on failure.