Mastering Python’s Decorators and Closures: A Practical Guide

Unlock the power of these essential Python concepts with easy-to-understand examples

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Python is a versatile and powerful programming language, and two of its most useful features are decorators and closures. These concepts can seem a bit daunting at first, but once you understand how they work, they can become powerful tools in your Python toolkit.

What are Decorators?

Decorators are a way to modify the behavior of a function without changing its source code. They are defined using the @ symbol, followed by the decorator function, placed just before the function definition. Here's a simple example of a decorator that logs the arguments passed to a function:

def log_args(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        print(f"Calling {func.__name__} with args={args} and kwargs={kwargs}")
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper

@log_args
def add_numbers(a, b):
    return a + b

result = add_numbers(2, 3)
# Output: Calling add_numbers with args=(2, 3) and kwargs={}
# Result: 5

In this example, the log_args decorator wraps the add_numbers function, adding the logging functionality without modifying the original function.