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Prefer using named tuples over enums in Python.

• wk_end 6y ago
  Named tuples and enums do entirely different things (loosely-speaking: the former are product types, the latter are sum types). You also probably want dataclasses [1] instead of named tuples. [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/dataclasses.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/dataclasses.html
  • zbentley 6y ago
    Or data bearing enums, which bring some of the best of all of those worlds, with (value declaration, not usage) exhaustiveness enforced at compile time: https://github.com/klaviyo/matrix_enum https://github.com/klaviyo/matrix_enum My colleague and I started making use of that pattern last year (before open sourcing the package) and found it very useful.
  • danthemanvsqz 6y ago
    They do different things but in the wild are used in the same way. Data classes are not immutable so it would not be ideal for what I used named tuples for.
    • wk_end 6y ago
      Data classes can be made immutable using ‘frozen=True’. It sucks that it’s not default though. Can you give an example of how you use enums and named tuples in the same way? That just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me, but maybe I’m missing something.