How do I avoid the "self.x = x; self.y = y; self.z = z" pattern in __init__?

Question

I see patterns like

def __init__(self, x, y, z):
    ...
    self.x = x
    self.y = y
    self.z = z
    ...

quite frequently, often with a lot more parameters. Is there a good way to avoid this type of tedious repetitiveness? Should the class inherit from namedtuple instead?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: It seems that several people are concerned about presenting this solution, so I will provide a very clear disclaimer. You should not use this solution. I only provide it as information, so you know that the language is capable of this. The rest of the answer is just showing language capabilities, not endorsing using them in this way.

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There isn't really anything wrong with explicitly copying parameters into attributes. If you have too many parameters in the ctor, it is sometimes considered a code smell and maybe you should group these params into a fewer objects. Other times, it is necessary and there is nothing wrong with it. Anyway, doing it explicitly is the way to go.

However, since you are asking HOW it can be done (and not whether it should be done), then one solution is this:

class A:
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        for key in kwargs:
          setattr(self, key, kwargs[key])

a = A(l=1, d=2)
a.l # will return 1
a.d # will return 2