Generate a (mutable) struct which inherits others

New to Julia
,
1

Hi.

Is there any way for a (mutable) struct to inherit fields from others?

For example, what I’m trying to do is:

mutable struct Parent
    foo
    bar
end

mutable struct Child <: Parent
end

and use child = Child(); child.foo = 1 (struct field inheritance).
However, an error was raised from the above code: invalid subtyping in definition of Child.

Is there something I missed?

2

Nope, Julia doesn’t let you inherit from concrete types. Only abstract types can have subtypes. That said, usually what you want to do here is just have

mutable struct Child
    x::Parent
end

and then define methods appropriately.

1 Like
3

Go allows direct access to "sub-types " if names don’t clash.

But you can achieve something similar by overload the getproperty method

4

@xiaodai @Oscar_Smith
Can you give me a more specific example to inherit “fields” from other struct?
Or, is it impossible in Julia? Should I write all individual fields manually?

5

Follow this example and just work thru it

mutable struct Parent
    foo
    bar
end

mutable struct Child
    parent::Parent
    foo # this is duplicated with parent
    notbar
end


parent = Parent(1, 2)

child = Child(parent, 3, 4)

child.bar # doesn't work

function Base.getproperty(child::Child, prop::Symbol)
    if prop in fieldnames(Parent) && !(prop in fieldnames(Child))
        return getfield(child.parent, prop)
    else
        return getfield(child, prop)
    end
end

child.bar # works now

child.foo # returns child value instead of parent value;

child.parent.foo # return parent's foo

This shows the underlying mechanism. If you do this pattern alot you can make it easier by using a macro to write those codes for you.

3 Likes
6

Thanks a lot.

It seems useful, but I don’t know how to make a macro.
I would have to look at macro :slight_smile: thx.

+) There’s no famous packages which offers such macros in Julia community? @xiaodai

7

maybe i am not sure. maybe someone will point the way. But this pattern is not that common in Julia I would guess. You can acheive what u want (what u really want functionally, not aesthetically) using more Julian ways I would guess.

Also I suspect Hands-On Design Patterns and Best Practices with Julia

talks about it but you have to buy the book to support Tom first. :slight_smile:

1 Like
8

You might find this discussion useful if you haven’t already seen it: Composition and inheritance: the Julian way

This package https://github.com/rjplevin/Classes.jl can help emulate something like what you’re asking for, but I would keep in mind that this is not usually the right way to do things in Julia. Using abstract types and method dispatch would be the recommended solution that leads to clearer / faster / more “Julian” code.

3 Likes
9

Exactly.

10

@marius311 Thanks for your advice.

Many people using Julia give advices like you.
Unfortunately, I cannot find a both easy (to me) and Julian way to write codes although I’ve spent long time here.

I’ll read the post you suggested again and think about it deeply.
Thank you all!

1 Like
11

If u r able, get the book and read thru it? https://subscription.packtpub.com/book/programming/9781838648817/8/ch08lvl1sec38/the-delegation-pattern

1 Like
12

@xiaodai
I’ve just read the book.
It’s helpful, and (probably) summarises the above stuffs.
+) I rethink that the feature I needed is REALLY necessary for me.
Great! :slight_smile:

13

Similar to what @marius311 mentioned. I use GitHub - ipod825/OOPMacro.jl: Object Oriented Programming in Julia to get around this.