Dear all,
Suppose I have a parser that parses information stored in e.g. an XML file. I
would like to design a Python class to store the information contained in this
XML file.
One option is to create a class like this:
class Record(object):
pass
and store the information in the XML file as attributes of objects of this
class, as in
>>> handle = open("myxmlfile.xml")
>>> record = parse(handle) # returns a Record object
>>> record.name
"John Doe"
>>> record.birthday
"February 1, 1920"
Alternatively I could subclass the dictionary class:
class Record(dict):
pass
and have something like
>>> handle = open("myxmlfile.xml")
>>> record = parse(handle) # returns a Record object
>>> record['name']
"John Doe"
>>> record['birthday']
"February 1, 1920"
I can see some advantage to using a dictionary, because it allows me to use the
same strings as keys in the dictionary as in used in the XML file itself. But
are there some general guidelines for when to use a dictionary-like class, and
when to use attributes to store information? In particular, are there any
situations where there is some advantage in using attributes?
Thanks,
-Michiel.
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