New in version 3.4.

Module Contents

This module defines four enumeration classes that can be used to define unique sets of names and values: Enum, IntEnum, Flag, and IntFlag. It also defines one decorator, unique(), and one helper, auto.

class enum.Enum

Base class for creating enumerated constants. See section Functional API for an alternate construction syntax.

class enum.IntEnum

Base class for creating enumerated constants that are also subclasses of int.

class enum.IntFlag

Base class for creating enumerated constants that can be combined using the bitwise operators without losing their IntFlag membership. IntFlag members are also subclasses of int.

class enum.Flag

Base class for creating enumerated constants that can be combined using the bitwise operations without losing their Flag membership.

enum.unique()

Enum class decorator that ensures only one name is bound to any one value.

class enum.auto

Instances are replaced with an appropriate value for Enum members.

Creating an Enum

Enumerations are created using the class syntax, which makes them easy to read and write. An alternative creation method is described in Functional API. To define an enumeration, subclass Enum as follows:

>>> from enum import Enum
>>> class Color(Enum):
...     RED = 1
...     GREEN = 2
...     BLUE = 3
...

Enumeration members have human readable string representations:

>>> print(Color.RED)
Color.RED

…while their repr has more information:

>>> print(repr(Color.RED))
<Color.RED: 1>

The type of an enumeration member is the enumeration it belongs to:

>>> type(Color.RED)
<enum 'Color'>
>>> isinstance(Color.GREEN, Color)
True
>>>

Enum members also have a property that contains just their item name:

>>> print(Color.RED.name)
RED

Enumerations support iteration, in definition order:

>>> class Shake(Enum):
...     VANILLA = 7
...     CHOCOLATE = 4
...     COOKIES = 9
...     MINT = 3
...
>>> for shake in Shake:
...     print(shake)
...
Shake.VANILLA
Shake.CHOCOLATE
Shake.COOKIES
Shake.MINT

Enumeration members are hashable, so they can be used in dictionaries and sets:

>>> apples = {}
>>> apples[Color.RED] = 'red delicious'
>>> apples[Color.GREEN] = 'granny smith'
>>> apples == {Color.RED: 'red delicious', Color.GREEN: 'granny smith'}
True

Programmatic access to enumeration members and their attributes

Sometimes it’s useful to access members in enumerations programmatically (i.e. situations where Color.RED won’t do because the exact color is not known at program-writing time). Enum allows such access:

>>> Color(1)
<Color.RED: 1>
>>> Color(3)
<Color.BLUE: 3>

If you want to access enum members by name, use item access:

>>> Color['RED']
<Color.RED: 1>
>>> Color['GREEN']
<Color.GREEN: 2>

If you have an enum member and need its name or value:

>>> member = Color.RED
>>> member.name
'RED'
>>> member.value
1

Duplicating enum members and values

Having two enum members with the same name is invalid:

>>> class Shape(Enum):
...     SQUARE = 2
...     SQUARE = 3
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: Attempted to reuse key: 'SQUARE'

However, two enum members are allowed to have the same value. Given two members A and B with the same value (and A defined first), B is an alias to A. By-value lookup of the value of A and B will return A. By-name lookup of B will also return A:

>>> class Shape(Enum):
...     SQUARE = 2
...     DIAMOND = 1
...     CIRCLE = 3
...     ALIAS_FOR_SQUARE = 2
...
>>> Shape.SQUARE
<Shape.SQUARE: 2>
>>> Shape.ALIAS_FOR_SQUARE
<Shape.SQUARE: 2>
>>> Shape(2)
<Shape.SQUARE: 2>

Ensuring unique enumeration values

By default, enumerations allow multiple names as aliases for the same value. When this behavior isn’t desired, the following decorator can be used to ensure each value is used only once in the enumeration:

@enum.unique

A class decorator specifically for enumerations. It searches an enumeration’s __members__ gathering any aliases it finds; if any are found ValueError is raised with the details:

>>> from enum import Enum, unique
>>> @unique
... class Mistake(Enum):
...     ONE = 1
...     TWO = 2
...     THREE = 3
...     FOUR = 3
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: duplicate values found in <enum 'Mistake'>: FOUR -> THREE

Using automatic values

If the exact value is unimportant you can use auto:

>>> from enum import Enum, auto
>>> class Color(Enum):
...     RED = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...
>>> list(Color)
[<Color.RED: 1>, <Color.BLUE: 2>, <Color.GREEN: 3>]

The values are chosen by _generate_next_value_(), which can be overridden:

>>> class AutoName(Enum):
...     def _generate_next_value_(name, start, count, last_values):
...         return name
...
>>> class Ordinal(AutoName):
...     NORTH = auto()
...     SOUTH = auto()
...     EAST = auto()
...     WEST = auto()
...
>>> list(Ordinal)
[<Ordinal.NORTH: 'NORTH'>, <Ordinal.SOUTH: 'SOUTH'>, <Ordinal.EAST: 'EAST'>, <Ordinal.WEST: 'WEST'>]

Iteration

Iterating over the members of an enum does not provide the aliases:

>>> list(Shape)
[<Shape.SQUARE: 2>, <Shape.DIAMOND: 1>, <Shape.CIRCLE: 3>]

The special attribute __members__ is an ordered dictionary mapping names to members. It includes all names defined in the enumeration, including the aliases:

>>> for name, member in Shape.__members__.items():
...     name, member
...
('SQUARE', <Shape.SQUARE: 2>)
('DIAMOND', <Shape.DIAMOND: 1>)
('CIRCLE', <Shape.CIRCLE: 3>)
('ALIAS_FOR_SQUARE', <Shape.SQUARE: 2>)

The __members__ attribute can be used for detailed programmatic access to the enumeration members. For example, finding all the aliases:

>>> [name for name, member in Shape.__members__.items() if member.name != name]
['ALIAS_FOR_SQUARE']

Comparisons

Enumeration members are compared by identity:

>>> Color.RED is Color.RED
True
>>> Color.RED is Color.BLUE
False
>>> Color.RED is not Color.BLUE
True

Ordered comparisons between enumeration values are not supported. Enum members are not integers (but see IntEnum below):

>>> Color.RED < Color.BLUE
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'Color' and 'Color'

Equality comparisons are defined though:

>>> Color.BLUE == Color.RED
False
>>> Color.BLUE != Color.RED
True
>>> Color.BLUE == Color.BLUE
True

Comparisons against non-enumeration values will always compare not equal (again, IntEnum was explicitly designed to behave differently, see below):

>>> Color.BLUE == 2
False

Allowed members and attributes of enumerations

The examples above use integers for enumeration values. Using integers is short and handy (and provided by default by the Functional API), but not strictly enforced. In the vast majority of use-cases, one doesn’t care what the actual value of an enumeration is. But if the value is important, enumerations can have arbitrary values.

Enumerations are Python classes, and can have methods and special methods as usual. If we have this enumeration:

>>> class Mood(Enum):
...     FUNKY = 1
...     HAPPY = 3
...
...     def describe(self):
...         # self is the member here
...         return self.name, self.value
...
...     def __str__(self):
...         return 'my custom str! {0}'.format(self.value)
...
...     @classmethod
...     def favorite_mood(cls):
...         # cls here is the enumeration
...         return cls.HAPPY
...

Then:

>>> Mood.favorite_mood()
<Mood.HAPPY: 3>
>>> Mood.HAPPY.describe()
('HAPPY', 3)
>>> str(Mood.FUNKY)
'my custom str! 1'

The rules for what is allowed are as follows: names that start and end with a single underscore are reserved by enum and cannot be used; all other attributes defined within an enumeration will become members of this enumeration, with the exception of special methods (__str__(), __add__(), etc.), descriptors (methods are also descriptors), and variable names listed in _ignore_.

Note: if your enumeration defines __new__() and/or __init__() then whatever value(s) were given to the enum member will be passed into those methods. See Planet for an example.

Restricted Enum subclassing

A new Enum class must have one base Enum class, up to one concrete data type, and as many object-based mixin classes as needed. The order of these base classes is:

class EnumName([mix-in, ...,] [data-type,] base-enum):
    pass

Also, subclassing an enumeration is allowed only if the enumeration does not define any members. So this is forbidden:

>>> class MoreColor(Color):
...     PINK = 17
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: Cannot extend enumerations

But this is allowed:

>>> class Foo(Enum):
...     def some_behavior(self):
...         pass
...
>>> class Bar(Foo):
...     HAPPY = 1
...     SAD = 2
...

Allowing subclassing of enums that define members would lead to a violation of some important invariants of types and instances. On the other hand, it makes sense to allow sharing some common behavior between a group of enumerations. (See OrderedEnum for an example.)

Pickling

Enumerations can be pickled and unpickled:

>>> from test.test_enum import Fruit
>>> from pickle import dumps, loads
>>> Fruit.TOMATO is loads(dumps(Fruit.TOMATO))
True

The usual restrictions for pickling apply: picklable enums must be defined in the top level of a module, since unpickling requires them to be importable from that module.

It is possible to modify how Enum members are pickled/unpickled by defining __reduce_ex__() in the enumeration class.

Functional API

The Enum class is callable, providing the following functional API:

>>> Animal = Enum('Animal', 'ANT BEE CAT DOG')
>>> Animal
<enum 'Animal'>
>>> Animal.ANT
<Animal.ANT: 1>
>>> Animal.ANT.value
1
>>> list(Animal)
[<Animal.ANT: 1>, <Animal.BEE: 2>, <Animal.CAT: 3>, <Animal.DOG: 4>]

The semantics of this API resemble namedtuple. The first argument of the call to Enum is the name of the enumeration.

The second argument is the source of enumeration member names. It can be a whitespace-separated string of names, a sequence of names, a sequence of 2-tuples with key/value pairs, or a mapping (e.g. dictionary) of names to values. The last two options enable assigning arbitrary values to enumerations; the others auto-assign increasing integers starting with 1 (use the start parameter to specify a different starting value). A new class derived from Enum is returned. In other words, the above assignment to Animal is equivalent to:

>>> class Animal(Enum):
...     ANT = 1
...     BEE = 2
...     CAT = 3
...     DOG = 4
...

The reason for defaulting to 1 as the starting number and not 0 is that 0 is False in a boolean sense, but enum members all evaluate to True.

Pickling enums created with the functional API can be tricky as frame stack implementation details are used to try and figure out which module the enumeration is being created in (e.g. it will fail if you use a utility function in separate module, and also may not work on IronPython or Jython). The solution is to specify the module name explicitly as follows:

>>> Animal = Enum('Animal', 'ANT BEE CAT DOG', module=__name__)

The new pickle protocol 4 also, in some circumstances, relies on __qualname__ being set to the location where pickle will be able to find the class. For example, if the class was made available in class SomeData in the global scope:

>>> Animal = Enum('Animal', 'ANT BEE CAT DOG', qualname='SomeData.Animal')

The complete signature is:

Enum(value='NewEnumName', names=<...>, *, module='...', qualname='...', type=<mixed-in class>, start=1)

'RED GREEN BLUE' | 'RED,GREEN,BLUE' | 'RED, GREEN, BLUE'

['RED', 'GREEN', 'BLUE']

[('CYAN', 4), ('MAGENTA', 5), ('YELLOW', 6)]

{'CHARTREUSE': 7, 'SEA_GREEN': 11, 'ROSEMARY': 42}

Derived Enumerations

>>> from enum import IntEnum
>>> class Shape(IntEnum):
...     CIRCLE = 1
...     SQUARE = 2
...
>>> class Request(IntEnum):
...     POST = 1
...     GET = 2
...
>>> Shape == 1
False
>>> Shape.CIRCLE == 1
True
>>> Shape.CIRCLE == Request.POST
True

>>> class Shape(IntEnum):
...     CIRCLE = 1
...     SQUARE = 2
...
>>> class Color(Enum):
...     RED = 1
...     GREEN = 2
...
>>> Shape.CIRCLE == Color.RED
False

>>> int(Shape.CIRCLE)
1
>>> ['a', 'b', 'c'][Shape.CIRCLE]
'b'
>>> [i for i in range(Shape.SQUARE)]
[0, 1]

>>> from enum import IntFlag
>>> class Perm(IntFlag):
...     R = 4
...     W = 2
...     X = 1
...
>>> Perm.R | Perm.W
<Perm.R|W: 6>
>>> Perm.R + Perm.W
6
>>> RW = Perm.R | Perm.W
>>> Perm.R in RW
True

>>> class Perm(IntFlag):
...     R = 4
...     W = 2
...     X = 1
...     RWX = 7
>>> Perm.RWX
<Perm.RWX: 7>
>>> ~Perm.RWX
<Perm.-8: -8>

>>> Perm.R & Perm.X
<Perm.0: 0>
>>> bool(Perm.R & Perm.X)
False

>>> Perm.X | 8
<Perm.8|X: 9>

>>> from enum import Flag, auto
>>> class Color(Flag):
...     RED = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...
>>> Color.RED & Color.GREEN
<Color.0: 0>
>>> bool(Color.RED & Color.GREEN)
False

>>> class Color(Flag):
...     RED = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...     WHITE = RED | BLUE | GREEN
...
>>> Color.WHITE
<Color.WHITE: 7>

>>> class Color(Flag):
...     BLACK = 0
...     RED = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...
>>> Color.BLACK
<Color.BLACK: 0>
>>> bool(Color.BLACK)
False

class IntEnum(int, Enum):
    pass

Interesting examples

While Enum, IntEnum, IntFlag, and Flag are expected to cover the majority of use-cases, they cannot cover them all. Here are recipes for some different types of enumerations that can be used directly, or as examples for creating one’s own.

>>> class NoValue(Enum):
...     def __repr__(self):
...         return '<%s.%s>' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.name)
...

>>> class Color(NoValue):
...     RED = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...
>>> Color.GREEN
<Color.GREEN>

>>> class Color(NoValue):
...     RED = object()
...     GREEN = object()
...     BLUE = object()
...
>>> Color.GREEN
<Color.GREEN>

>>> class Color(NoValue):
...     RED = 'stop'
...     GREEN = 'go'
...     BLUE = 'too fast!'
...
>>> Color.GREEN
<Color.GREEN>
>>> Color.GREEN.value
'go'

>>> class AutoNumber(NoValue):
...     def __new__(cls):
...         value = len(cls.__members__) + 1
...         obj = object.__new__(cls)
...         obj._value_ = value
...         return obj
...
>>> class Color(AutoNumber):
...     RED = ()
...     GREEN = ()
...     BLUE = ()
...
>>> Color.GREEN
<Color.GREEN>
>>> Color.GREEN.value
2

>>> class OrderedEnum(Enum):
...     def __ge__(self, other):
...         if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
...             return self.value >= other.value
...         return NotImplemented
...     def __gt__(self, other):
...         if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
...             return self.value > other.value
...         return NotImplemented
...     def __le__(self, other):
...         if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
...             return self.value <= other.value
...         return NotImplemented
...     def __lt__(self, other):
...         if self.__class__ is other.__class__:
...             return self.value < other.value
...         return NotImplemented
...
>>> class Grade(OrderedEnum):
...     A = 5
...     B = 4
...     C = 3
...     D = 2
...     F = 1
...
>>> Grade.C < Grade.A
True

>>> class DuplicateFreeEnum(Enum):
...     def __init__(self, *args):
...         cls = self.__class__
...         if any(self.value == e.value for e in cls):
...             a = self.name
...             e = cls(self.value).name
...             raise ValueError(
...                 "aliases not allowed in DuplicateFreeEnum:  %r --> %r"
...                 % (a, e))
...
>>> class Color(DuplicateFreeEnum):
...     RED = 1
...     GREEN = 2
...     BLUE = 3
...     GRENE = 2
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: aliases not allowed in DuplicateFreeEnum:  'GRENE' --> 'GREEN'

>>> class Planet(Enum):
...     MERCURY = (3.303e+23, 2.4397e6)
...     VENUS   = (4.869e+24, 6.0518e6)
...     EARTH   = (5.976e+24, 6.37814e6)
...     MARS    = (6.421e+23, 3.3972e6)
...     JUPITER = (1.9e+27,   7.1492e7)
...     SATURN  = (5.688e+26, 6.0268e7)
...     URANUS  = (8.686e+25, 2.5559e7)
...     NEPTUNE = (1.024e+26, 2.4746e7)
...     def __init__(self, mass, radius):
...         self.mass = mass       # in kilograms
...         self.radius = radius   # in meters
...     @property
...     def surface_gravity(self):
...         # universal gravitational constant  (m3 kg-1 s-2)
...         G = 6.67300E-11
...         return G * self.mass / (self.radius * self.radius)
...
>>> Planet.EARTH.value
(5.976e+24, 6378140.0)
>>> Planet.EARTH.surface_gravity
9.802652743337129

>>> from datetime import timedelta
>>> class Period(timedelta, Enum):
...     "different lengths of time"
...     _ignore_ = 'Period i'
...     Period = vars()
...     for i in range(367):
...         Period['day_%d' % i] = i
...
>>> list(Period)[:2]
[<Period.day_0: datetime.timedelta(0)>, <Period.day_1: datetime.timedelta(days=1)>]
>>> list(Period)[-2:]
[<Period.day_365: datetime.timedelta(days=365)>, <Period.day_366: datetime.timedelta(days=366)>]

How are Enums different?

Enums have a custom metaclass that affects many aspects of both derived Enum classes and their instances (members).

>>> class Color(Enum):
...     _order_ = 'RED GREEN BLUE'
...     RED = 1
...     BLUE = 3
...     GREEN = 2
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: member order does not match _order_

>>> class FieldTypes(Enum):
...     name = 0
...     value = 1
...     size = 2
...
>>> FieldTypes.value.size
<FieldTypes.size: 2>
>>> FieldTypes.size.value
2

def __bool__(self):
    return bool(self.value)

>>> dir(Planet)
['EARTH', 'JUPITER', 'MARS', 'MERCURY', 'NEPTUNE', 'SATURN', 'URANUS', 'VENUS', '__class__', '__doc__', '__members__', '__module__']
>>> dir(Planet.EARTH)
['__class__', '__doc__', '__module__', 'name', 'surface_gravity', 'value']

>>> class Color(Flag):
...     RED = auto()
...     GREEN = auto()
...     BLUE = auto()
...     MAGENTA = RED | BLUE
...     YELLOW = RED | GREEN
...     CYAN = GREEN | BLUE
...
>>> Color(3)  # named combination
<Color.YELLOW: 3>
>>> Color(7)      # not named combination
<Color.CYAN|MAGENTA|BLUE|YELLOW|GREEN|RED: 7>