Exploring Other Enumeration Classes

00:00 Exploring other enumeration classes. Apart from Enum, the enum module provides a few additional classes that allow you to create enumerations with specific behaviors.

00:12 You’ll have the IntEnum class for creating enumerated constants that are also subclasses of int, which implies that all members will have the features of an integer number.

00:21 In Python 3.11 and later, there’s the StrEnum class for creating enums that are subclasses of the built-in str type. You’ll also find more specialized classes like IntFlag and Flag.

00:34 Both classes will allow you to create enumerated sets of constants that you can combine using bitwise operators. In this section of the course, you’ll explore these classes and how they work in Python.

00:47 Integer enumerations are so common that the Enum module exports a dedicated class called IntEnum that was specifically created to cover this use case.

00:56 If you need the members of your enumerations to behave like integer numbers, then you should inherit from IntEnum rather than from Enum.

01:06 Subclassing IntEnum is equivalent to using multiple inheritance with int as the mixin class.

01:19 Now Size inherits directly from IntEnum instead of int and IntEnum like the previous version of Size.

01:26 This new version has full comparison capabilities and supports all the comparison operators. You can also use the class members in integer operations directly.

01:45 Size will automatically attempt to convert any value of a different data type to an integer number. If this conversion isn’t possible, then you’ll get a ValueError

02:03 here. Size automatically converts the string “4” into an integer value,

02:16 but here, because the string “4.0” doesn’t hold a valid numeric value, you get a ValueError and the conversion fails.

02:27 In Python version 3.10, the Enum module didn’t include a string class, but this class is another example of a popular use case of enumerations and for this reason, Python 3.11 and later include a StrEnum type with direct support for common string operations.

03:15 If you’re unable to use Python 3.11 or later, you can simulate the behavior of a StrEnum class by creating a mixin class with str and Enum as parent classes.

03:27 You can use IntFlag as a base class for enumerations that support the bitwise operators. Performing bitwise operations on members of an IntFlag subclass will return an object that’s also a member of the underlying enum.

03:42 Here’s an example of a Role enumeration that lets you manage different user roles in a single combined object.

03:52 In this code, you create an enumeration that holds a set of user roles in a given application. The members of this enumeration hold integer values that you can combine using the bitwise OR operator.

04:09 For example, the username John has both the USER and SUPERVISOR roles. Note that the object stored in john_roles is a member of the Role enumeration.

04:45 You should keep in mind that individual members of enums based on IntFlag, also known as flags, should take values that are powers of two. However, this isn’t a requirement for combination of flags as seen here with Role.ADMIN.

05:00 You defined Role.ADMIN as a combination of roles. Its value results from applying the bitwise OR operator to the complete list of previous roles in the enumeration.

05:12 IntFlag also supports integer operations such as arithmetic and comparison operations. But these types of operations return integers rather than member objects.

05:30 IntFlag members are also subclasses of int. That’s why you can use them in expressions that involve integer numbers. In these situations, the resulting value will be an integer rather than an Enum member.

05:45 Finally, you’ll also find that Flag class available in enum. This class works similarly to IntFlag, but has some additional restrictions.

06:42 The main difference between IntFlag and Flag is that the latter doesn’t inherit from int. Therefore, integer operations are not supported.

06:51 When you try to use a member of Role in an integer operation, you get a TypeError.

07:00 Just like members of IntFlag enums, the members of Flag enums should have values that are powers of two. Once again, this doesn’t apply to combinations of flags such as ROLE_ADMIN.

07:11 In the example seen earlier, Python’s enumerations can help you improve your code’s readability and organization. You can use them to group similar constants that you can use in your code to replace strings, numbers, and other values with readable and meaningful names.

07:32 In the next section of the course, you’ll code a couple of practical examples that deal with common IntEnum and Enum use cases to help you decide when your code could benefit from using enumerations.