"@" Decorator (in Python)

Question

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Understanding Python decorators

What function does the "class decorator"/"method decorator" (@) serve? In other words, what is the difference between this and a normal comment?

Also, what does setter do when using @previousMethod.setter before a method? Thank you.

A decorator is not a comment. Check [the docs](http://docs.python.org/reference/compound_stmts.html#function) for what they are. As for the latter note, it's using [``property()``](http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#property) to avoid getters/setters in favour of attributes. — Gareth Latty, Apr 17 '12 at 12:50
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/739654/understanding-python-decorators — tMC, Apr 17 '12 at 13:40

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 17 '12 at 13:37

5

@decorator
def function(args):
    #body

is just syntactic sugar for:

def function(args):
    #body

function = decorator(function)

That's really it.

As you see, the decorator gets called, so it's by no means a comment.

answered Apr 17 '12 at 13:37

ch3ka

1 Answers1