Py Decorators — Free Python Tutorial

TL;DR: Learn Py Decorators in Python with a free, beginner-friendly tutorial, examples and practice for Indian students on Syllab.in.

Py Decorators in Python

A decorator is a function that wraps another function to add extra behaviour without modifying the original function code. It's Python's clean way to extend function behaviour.

Decorators use the @ symbol before a function definition. Under the hood, @my_decorator is the same as my_function = my_decorator(my_function).

Common uses: logging function calls, timing how long a function takes, checking authentication, repeating/retrying operations.

The functools.wraps decorator should be used inside your decorator to preserve the original function's name and docstring.

import functools

def my_decorator(func):
    @functools.wraps(func)
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        # code BEFORE calling func
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        # code AFTER calling func
        return result
    return wrapper

@my_decorator
def my_function():
    ...

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