Styjun

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the implementation and usage of UserList's with objects.

To contextualize, I have a Class File, which has the File object, to be opened, read, etc etc, and a Client Object.

In File, I open, and read the Client's file, which has the Client's information line by line.
This way, I read each parameter of the Client, create a Client object, and append the object to a List.

This would be an OK solution, but we are being forced to use an implementation of UserList.

I understand that it's basicly a wrapper (?) for lists of objects.
Basicly, an object that mimics Lists in behaviour, and they are lists of objects.

So far so good.

But for the life of me, I just can't figure out how to properly implement it, and I don't really understand the scarce examples of it's implementation.

It doesn't make sense for me to initialize a UserList everytime I create a Client object, but it also doesn't make sense for me to make the File class, a subclass of UserList, since we have 2 more types of files (Experts and Schedule) that File takes care of.

Therefore, I can only assume that my struture of Classes/Objects isn't correct, so I'm open to suggestions.

main.py

inFileClients = File("2019y01m12clients09h00.txt") # use sys.argv[1:]
inFileClientsHeader, inFileClientsContent = inFileClients.readFileClient()

File.py

def readFileHeader(self, inFile):
 #Cut this, only for context
 return Header(date, time, scope)

 def readFileContentCli(self, inFile):
 clientList = []
 #Cut this, only for context
 clientList.append(Client(name, local, start_date, start_hour, max_price, min_rep, domain, job_dur))

 clientList = UserList.__init__(self, clientList)
 return clientList

Client.py then only creates an Object with the data received.
So in my mind, UserList already has to be created, and it's only a matter to append the object to that list.

As you said UserList is a wrapper on the default python list. It was created to provide base class for list like custom classes. More in the docs.

So UserList acts like a default List object. To create it don’t directly use init method but create it with constructor

my_list = UserList()

Then you can append and pop data as with usual list.

my_list.append(x)
my_list.remove(x)

The real list under hood that keeps data is available by

my_list.data

In your example possibly you want to achieve something like container for Clients.

from collections import UserList

class ClientList(UserList):
 '''
 your implemented client list 
 class that contains some 
 methods on list
 '''
 pass