8.4. "collections.abc" — Abstract Base Classes for Containers
*************************************************************

New in version 3.3: Formerly, this module was part of the
"collections" module.

**Source code:** Lib/_collections_abc.py

======================================================================

This module provides *abstract base classes* that can be used to test
whether a class provides a particular interface; for example, whether
it is hashable or whether it is a mapping.


8.4.1. Collections Abstract Base Classes
========================================

The collections module offers the following *ABCs*:

+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| ABC                        | Inherits from          | Abstract Methods        | Mixin Methods                                        |
+============================+========================+=========================+======================================================+
| "Container"                |                        | "__contains__"          |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Hashable"                 |                        | "__hash__"              |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Iterable"                 |                        | "__iter__"              |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Iterator"                 | "Iterable"             | "__next__"              | "__iter__"                                           |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Generator"                | "Iterator"             | "send", "throw"         | "close", "__iter__", "__next__"                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Sized"                    |                        | "__len__"               |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Callable"                 |                        | "__call__"              |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Sequence"                 | "Sized", "Iterable",   | "__getitem__",          | "__contains__", "__iter__", "__reversed__", "index", |
|                            | "Container"            | "__len__"               | and "count"                                          |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "MutableSequence"          | "Sequence"             | "__getitem__",          | Inherited "Sequence" methods and "append",           |
|                            |                        | "__setitem__",          | "reverse", "extend", "pop", "remove", and "__iadd__" |
|                            |                        | "__delitem__",          |                                                      |
|                            |                        | "__len__", "insert"     |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "ByteString"               | "Sequence"             | "__getitem__",          | Inherited "Sequence" methods                         |
|                            |                        | "__len__"               |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Set"                      | "Sized", "Iterable",   | "__contains__",         | "__le__", "__lt__", "__eq__", "__ne__", "__gt__",    |
|                            | "Container"            | "__iter__", "__len__"   | "__ge__", "__and__", "__or__", "__sub__", "__xor__", |
|                            |                        |                         | and "isdisjoint"                                     |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "MutableSet"               | "Set"                  | "__contains__",         | Inherited "Set" methods and "clear", "pop",          |
|                            |                        | "__iter__", "__len__",  | "remove", "__ior__", "__iand__", "__ixor__", and     |
|                            |                        | "add", "discard"        | "__isub__"                                           |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Mapping"                  | "Sized", "Iterable",   | "__getitem__",          | "__contains__", "keys", "items", "values", "get",    |
|                            | "Container"            | "__iter__", "__len__"   | "__eq__", and "__ne__"                               |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "MutableMapping"           | "Mapping"              | "__getitem__",          | Inherited "Mapping" methods and "pop", "popitem",    |
|                            |                        | "__setitem__",          | "clear", "update", and "setdefault"                  |
|                            |                        | "__delitem__",          |                                                      |
|                            |                        | "__iter__", "__len__"   |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "MappingView"              | "Sized"                |                         | "__len__"                                            |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "ItemsView"                | "MappingView", "Set"   |                         | "__contains__", "__iter__"                           |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "KeysView"                 | "MappingView", "Set"   |                         | "__contains__", "__iter__"                           |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "ValuesView"               | "MappingView"          |                         | "__contains__", "__iter__"                           |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Awaitable"                |                        | "__await__"             |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "Coroutine"                | "Awaitable"            | "send", "throw"         | "close"                                              |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "AsyncIterable"            |                        | "__aiter__"             |                                                      |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| "AsyncIterator"            | "AsyncIterable"        | "__anext__"             | "__aiter__"                                          |
+----------------------------+------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+

class collections.abc.Container
class collections.abc.Hashable
class collections.abc.Sized
class collections.abc.Callable

   ABCs for classes that provide respectively the methods
   "__contains__()", "__hash__()", "__len__()", and "__call__()".

class collections.abc.Iterable

   ABC for classes that provide the "__iter__()" method. See also the
   definition of *iterable*.

class collections.abc.Iterator

   ABC for classes that provide the "__iter__()" and "__next__()"
   methods.  See also the definition of *iterator*.

class collections.abc.Generator

   ABC for generator classes that implement the protocol defined in
   **PEP 342** that extends iterators with the "send()", "throw()" and
   "close()" methods. See also the definition of *generator*.

   New in version 3.5.

class collections.abc.Sequence
class collections.abc.MutableSequence
class collections.abc.ByteString

   ABCs for read-only and mutable *sequences*.

   Implementation note: Some of the mixin methods, such as
   "__iter__()", "__reversed__()" and "index()", make repeated calls
   to the underlying "__getitem__()" method. Consequently, if
   "__getitem__()" is implemented with constant access speed, the
   mixin methods will have linear performance; however, if the
   underlying method is linear (as it would be with a linked list),
   the mixins will have quadratic performance and will likely need to
   be overridden.

   Changed in version 3.5: The index() method added support for *stop*
   and *start* arguments.

class collections.abc.Set
class collections.abc.MutableSet

   ABCs for read-only and mutable sets.

class collections.abc.Mapping
class collections.abc.MutableMapping

   ABCs for read-only and mutable *mappings*.

class collections.abc.MappingView
class collections.abc.ItemsView
class collections.abc.KeysView
class collections.abc.ValuesView

   ABCs for mapping, items, keys, and values *views*.

class collections.abc.Awaitable

   ABC for *awaitable* objects, which can be used in "await"
   expressions.  Custom implementations must provide the "__await__()"
   method.

   *Coroutine* objects and instances of the "Coroutine" ABC are all
   instances of this ABC.

   Note: In CPython, generator-based coroutines (generators
     decorated with "types.coroutine()" or "asyncio.coroutine()") are
     *awaitables*, even though they do not have an "__await__()"
     method. Using "isinstance(gencoro, Awaitable)" for them will
     return "False". Use "inspect.isawaitable()" to detect them.

   New in version 3.5.

class collections.abc.Coroutine

   ABC for coroutine compatible classes.  These implement the
   following methods, defined in Coroutine Objects: "send()",
   "throw()", and "close()".  Custom implementations must also
   implement "__await__()".  All "Coroutine" instances are also
   instances of "Awaitable".  See also the definition of *coroutine*.

   Note: In CPython, generator-based coroutines (generators
     decorated with "types.coroutine()" or "asyncio.coroutine()") are
     *awaitables*, even though they do not have an "__await__()"
     method. Using "isinstance(gencoro, Coroutine)" for them will
     return "False". Use "inspect.isawaitable()" to detect them.

   New in version 3.5.

class collections.abc.AsyncIterable

   ABC for classes that provide "__aiter__" method.  See also the
   definition of *asynchronous iterable*.

   New in version 3.5.

class collections.abc.AsyncIterator

   ABC for classes that provide "__aiter__" and "__anext__" methods.
   See also the definition of *asynchronous iterator*.

   New in version 3.5.

These ABCs allow us to ask classes or instances if they provide
particular functionality, for example:

   size = None
   if isinstance(myvar, collections.abc.Sized):
       size = len(myvar)

Several of the ABCs are also useful as mixins that make it easier to
develop classes supporting container APIs.  For example, to write a
class supporting the full "Set" API, it is only necessary to supply
the three underlying abstract methods: "__contains__()", "__iter__()",
and "__len__()". The ABC supplies the remaining methods such as
"__and__()" and "isdisjoint()":

   class ListBasedSet(collections.abc.Set):
       ''' Alternate set implementation favoring space over speed
           and not requiring the set elements to be hashable. '''
       def __init__(self, iterable):
           self.elements = lst = []
           for value in iterable:
               if value not in lst:
                   lst.append(value)

       def __iter__(self):
           return iter(self.elements)

       def __contains__(self, value):
           return value in self.elements

       def __len__(self):
           return len(self.elements)

   s1 = ListBasedSet('abcdef')
   s2 = ListBasedSet('defghi')
   overlap = s1 & s2            # The __and__() method is supported automatically

Notes on using "Set" and "MutableSet" as a mixin:

1. Since some set operations create new sets, the default mixin
   methods need a way to create new instances from an iterable. The
   class constructor is assumed to have a signature in the form
   "ClassName(iterable)". That assumption is factored-out to an
   internal classmethod called "_from_iterable()" which calls
   "cls(iterable)" to produce a new set. If the "Set" mixin is being
   used in a class with a different constructor signature, you will
   need to override "_from_iterable()" with a classmethod that can
   construct new instances from an iterable argument.

2. To override the comparisons (presumably for speed, as the
   semantics are fixed), redefine "__le__()" and "__ge__()", then the
   other operations will automatically follow suit.

3. The "Set" mixin provides a "_hash()" method to compute a hash
   value for the set; however, "__hash__()" is not defined because not
   all sets are hashable or immutable.  To add set hashability using
   mixins, inherit from both "Set()" and "Hashable()", then define
   "__hash__ = Set._hash".

See also:

  * OrderedSet recipe for an example built on "MutableSet".

  * For more about ABCs, see the "abc" module and **PEP 3119**.
