[FIXED] Python 2: Passing global variable to factory decorator

Issue

In the below script I would like to use the name_type global variable in the decorator while calling the get_names functions. Please don't worry about the program logic.

name_type=None
def main():
    global name_type
    name_type="FEMALE"
    get_names()

def superNameDecorator(value):
    def nameDecorator(func):
        if value in ["MALE"]:
            def wrapper1(*args,**kwargs):
                original_result=func(*args,**kwargs)
                modified_result= "<MALE>"+original_result + "<\MALE>"
                return modified_result
            return wrapper1
        elif value in ["FEMALE"]:
            def wrapper2(*args,**kwargs):
                original_result=func(*args,**kwargs)
                modified_result= "<FEMALE>"+original_result + "<\FEMALE>"
                return modified_result
            return wrapper2
    return nameDecorator

@superNameDecorator(name_type)
def get_names():
    name='AMY'
    return name

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()  

This works fine when I pass direct string either "MALE"/"FEMALE" but throws below error when passing name_type What am I missing here?

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "GlobalTesting.py", line 29, in <module>
    main()
  File "GlobalTesting.py", line 5, in main
    get_names()
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable

Solution

When get_names is defined, name_type is None, because main hasn't been called yet. Neither of the if/elif clauses get run, so nameDecorator returns None, which gets bound to the identifier get_names. One solution would be to remove main and just make it a __name__ check near the top of the file.

import os
import re
import sys


name_type=None
if __name == '__main__':  # If this doesn't happen, this error will still occur.
    name_type="FEMALE"

def superNameDecorator(value):
    def nameDecorator(func):
        if value in ["MALE"]:
            def wrapper1(*args,**kwargs):
                original_result=func(*args,**kwargs)
                modified_result= "<MALE>"+original_result + "<\MALE>"
                return modified_result
            return wrapper1
        elif value in ["FEMALE"]:
            def wrapper2(*args,**kwargs):
                original_result=func(*args,**kwargs)
                modified_result= "<FEMALE>"+original_result + "<\FEMALE>"
                return modified_result
            return wrapper2
    return nameDecorator

@superNameDecorator(name_type)
def get_names():
    name='AMY'
    return name

if __name == '__main__':
    get_names()

A more sensible solution would be to rewrite your nameDecorator to handle any name_type, and the lack of a name_type, in some way that makes sense to you.

Answered By - Patrick Haugh