PyMaybe

A Python implementation of the Maybe pattern.

Installation

pip install pymaybe

Getting Started

from pymaybe import maybe
first_name = maybe(deep_hash)['account']['user_profile']['first_name'].or_else("<unknown>")

Documentation

Maybe monad is a programming pattern that allows to treat None values that same way as non-none values. This is done by wrapping the value, which may or may not be None to, a wrapper class.

The implementation includes two classes: Maybe and Something. Something represents a value while Nothing represents a None value. There's also a method maybe which wraps a regular value and and returns Something or Nothing instance.

>>> maybe("I'm a value")
"I'm a value"

>>> maybe(None);
None

Both Something and Nothing implement 4 methods allowing you to test their real value: is_some, is_none, get and or_else

>>> maybe("I'm a value").is_some()
True

>>> maybe("I'm a value").is_none()
False

>>> maybe(None).is_some()
False

>>> maybe(None).is_none()
True

>>> maybe("I'm a value").get()
"I'm a value"

>>> maybe("I'm a value").or_else(lambda: "No value")
"I'm a value"

>>> maybe(None).get()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
Exception: No such element

>>> maybe(None).or_else(lambda: "value")
'value'

>>> maybe(None).or_else("value")
'value'

In addition, Something and Nothing implement the Python magic methods allowing you to treat them as dictionaries:

>>> nested_dict = maybe(nested_dict)
>>> nested_dict['store']['name']
'MyStore'

>>> nested_dict['store']['address']
None

>>> nested_dict['store']['address']['street'].or_else('No Address Specified')
'No Address Specified'

All other method calls on Something are forwarded to its real value:

>>> maybe('VALUE').lower()
'value'

>>> maybe(None).invalid().method().or_else('unknwon')
'unknwon'

Examples & Use Cases

The Maybe pattern helps you avoid nasty try..except blocks. Consider the following code:

try:
    url = rss.load_feeds()[0].url.domain
except (TypeError, IndexError, KeyError, AttributeError):
    url = "planetpython.org"

With Maybe you could simply do:

url = maybe(rss).load_feeds()[0]['url'].domain.or_else("planetpython.org")

Getting the current logged in user's name. Without maybe:

def get_user_zipcode():
    address = getattr(request.user, 'address', None)
    if address:
        return getattr(address, 'zipcode', '')

    return ''

With maybe:

def get_user_zipcode():
    return maybe(request.user).address.zipcode.or_else('')

Further Reading

• Option (Scala)
• Maybe (Java)
• Maybe pattern (Python recipe)
• Data.Maybe (Haskell)
• Maybe (Ruby)

Copyright and License

Copyright 2015 - Eran Kampf

• Free software: BSD license
• Documentation: https://pymaybe.readthedocs.org.
• Code is hosted on GitHub