Skip to main content

✨ Pipe Operator ✨

Code quality Tests Build Coverage Tag Python Licence

pipe_operator allows you to use an elixir pipe-like syntax in python. This module provides 2 vastly different implementations, each with its own pros and cons.

⚡ Quick start

As simple as pip install pipe_operator. Then either import the 🐍 pythonic version or the 🍹 elixir version

# Pythonic imports
from pipe_operator.python_flow import end, pipe, start, tap, task, then, wait
# Elixir imports
from pipe_operator.elixir_flow import elixir_pipe, tap, then

📕 Overview

You can use the 🐍 pythonic implementation, which is entirely compatible with linters and type-checkers, but a bit more verbose than the original pipe operator:

from pipe_operator.python_flow import end, pipe, start, tap, task, then, wait

result = (
    start("3")                              # start
    >> pipe(do_something)                   # function
    >> then[str, int](lambda x: int(x))     # typed lambda
    >> pipe(do_something_async)             # async function
    >> task("t1", lambda _: print("hello")) # lambda task
    >> pipe(do_something_else, 30, z=10)    # function with args/kwargs
    >> task("t2", do_something_async)       # async task
    >> wait(["t1"])                         # wait for a specific task
    >> pipe(BasicClass)                     # class
    >> pipe(BasicClass.my_classmethode)     # classmethod
    >> tap(BasicClass.my_method)            # (side effect) method
    >> pipe(BasicClass.other_method, 5)     # method with arg
    >> tap(lambda x: print(x))              # lambda (side-effect)
    >> wait()                               # wait for all remaining tasks
    >> end()                                # end
)

Or the 🍹 elixir-like implementation, whose syntax greatly resembles the original pipe operator, but has major issues with linters and type-checkers.

from pipe_operator.elixir_flow import elixir_pipe, tap, then

@elixir_pipe
def workflow(value):
    results = (
        value                           # raw value
        >> BasicClass                   # class call
        >> _.value                      # property (shortcut)
        >> BasicClass()                 # class call
        >> _.get_value_plus_arg(10)     # method call
        >> 10 + _ - 5                   # binary operation (shortcut)
        >> {_, 1, 2, 3}                 # object creation (shortcut)
        >> [x for x in _ if x > 4]      # comprehension (shortcut)
        >> (lambda x: x[0])             # lambda (shortcut)
        >> my_func(_)                   # function call
        >> tap(my_func)                 # side effect
        >> my_other_func(2, 3)          # function call with extra args
        >> then(lambda a: a + 1)        # then
        >> f"value is {_}"              # formatted string (shortcut)
    )
    return results

workflow(3)

🐍 Pythonic implementation

Available imports

In the 🐍 pythonic implementation, we expose the following items:

Import Description Examples
start The start of the pipe start("3")
pipe To call almost any functions, classes, or methods (except lambdas) pipe(int), pipe(do_something, 2000, z=10)
then To call 1-arg lambda functions (like elixir) then[int, str](lambda x: str(x))
tap To perform side-effects and return the original value (like elixir) tap(do_something)
task To perform non-blocking function calls (in a thread) task("t1", do_something, arg1)
wait To wait for specific tasks to complete wait(["id1"]), wait()
end The end of the pipe, to extract the raw final result end()

Limitations

property: Class instance properties cannot be called through pipe. You must use then with a lambda instead. For example: then[MyClass, int](lambda x: x.value)

functions without positional/keyword parameters: Functions like do_something(*args) are supported though the type-checker will complain. Use a single # type: ignore comment instead.

🍹 Elixir-like implementation

Overview

In the 🍹 elixir-like implementation, we expose 3 functions:

  • elixir_pipe: a decorator that enables the use of "pipe" in our function
  • tap: a function to trigger a side-effect and return the original value
  • then: (optional) the proper way to pass lambdas into the pipe

The elixir_pipe decorator can take arguments allowing you to customize

# Those are the default args
@elixir_pipe(placeholder="_", lambda_var="_pipe_x", operator=">>", debug=False)
def my_function()
    ...
  • placeholder: The expected variable used in shortcut like _.property
  • lambda_var: The variable named used internally when we generate lambda function. You'll likely never change this
  • operator: The operator used in the pipe
  • debug: If true, will print the output after each pipe operation

Operations and shortcuts

Initially, all operations can be supported through the base operations, with lambdas allowing you to perform any other operations. To make lambda usage cleaner, you can write them into then calls as well.

Operation Input Output
function calls a >> b(...) b(a, ...)
class calls a >> B(...) B(a, ...)
calls without parenthesis a >> b b(a)
lambda calls a >> (lambda x: x + 4) (lambda x: x + 4)(a)

However, we've also added shortcuts, based on the placeholder argument, allowing you to skip the lambda declaration and directly perform the following operations:

Operation Input Output
method calls a >> _.method(...) a.method(...)
property calls a >> _.property a.property
binary operators a >> _ + 3 (lambda Z: Z + 3)(a)
f-strings a >> f"{_}" (lambda Z: f"{Z}")(a)
list/set/... creations a >> [_, 1, 2] (lambda Z: [Z, 1, 2])(a)
list/set/... comprehensions a >> [x + _ for x in range(_)] (lambda Z: [x + Z for x in range(Z)])(a)

Also you can write own functions like:

def pipe_filter(iterable, filter_func):
    return filter(filter_func, iterable)

def pipe_map(iterable, map_func):
    return map(map_func, iterable)

and use it same like elixir code:

value
>> pipe_filter(lambda a: '@' in a)
>> pipe_map(lambda a: a.lower())

How it works

Here's quick rundown of how it works. Feel free to inspect the source code or the tests. Once you've decorated your function and run the code:

  • We pull the AST from the original function
  • We remove our own decorator, to avoid recursion and impacting other functions
  • We then rewrite the AST, following a specific set of rules (as shown in the table below)
  • And finally we execute the re-written AST

Eventually, a >> b(...) >> c(...) becomes c(b(a, ...), ...).

Linters and type-checkers issues

Sadly, this implementation comes short when dealing with linters (like ruff or flake8) and type-checkers (like mypy, pyright, or ty). Because these are static code analyzers, they inspect the original code, and not your AST-modified version. To bypass the errors, you'll need to disable the following:

  • mypy: Either ignore operator,call-arg,call-overload,name-defined, or ignore just name-defined and use the @no_type_check decorator
  • pyright: Set reportOperatorIssue, reportCallIssue, reportUndefinedVariable to none
  • ty: Ignore missing-argument, unsupported-operator, and unresolved-reference
  • ruff: Disable the F821 error
  • flake8: Disable the F821 error

Performances

In terms of performances, this implementation should add very little overhead. The decorator and AST rewrite are run only once at compile time, and while it does generate a few extra lambda functions, it also removes the need for intermediate variables.

🔗 Useful links

⏳ Stats

Alt

Metadata

Release files for pipe-operator 2.1.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for pipe-operator 2.1.0
File Size Uploaded
pipe_operator-2.1.0.tar.gz 25.8 kB Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for pipe-operator 2.1.0
File Interpreter ABI Platform
pipe_operator-2.1.0-py3-none-any.whl Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 52.7 kB

Release files / pipe_operator-2.1.0.tar.gz

Download URL pipe_operator-2.1.0.tar.gz
Size 25.8 kB
Tags Source
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
4826d71b888f54e0542161e72bece9dd4f1e7f637a643bd5039c075e6f889c80
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
46694cf4198fbfe2c2032519e66365390bac0fb060d594a24369a752a0013a53
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.2

Release files / pipe_operator-2.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL pipe_operator-2.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size 26.9 kB
Tags Python 3
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
8e3b0283d79ba832a2959fb6aefeec579565e052a9d6fcfb10092888d42385a5
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
d32ee2a16a679f849cff8d85e4c88bc19eca845b312de444a96d3e945e4ee25e
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.2

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

This release

2.1.0 This release

2 release files

2.0.2

2 release files

2.0.1

2 release files

2.0.0

2 release files

1.1.0

2 release files

1.0.4

2 release files

1.0.3

2 release files

1.0.2

2 release files

1.0.1

2 release files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page