Python Enums: Bringing Clarity to Your Code Like Never Before

Demystifying Enums in Python — A Practical Guide for Clean and Readable Code

Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash

In the vast realm of Python programming, there’s a tool that often flies under the radar but can significantly improve the clarity and readability of your code: Enums. If you’ve ever found yourself dealing with magic numbers or struggling to decipher the meaning of integer constants, Enums are here to simplify your life.

In this article, we’ll dive into what Enums are, explore their real-world applications, and demonstrate how they can bring order to your Python projects.

Unraveling Enums: What Are They?

Enums, short for enumerations, provide a way to create named constant values in Python. They offer a more readable and maintainable alternative to using plain integers or strings as constants. Let’s start with a basic example to illustrate the power of Enums:

from enum import Enum

class Weekday(Enum):
    MONDAY = 1
    TUESDAY = 2
    WEDNESDAY = 3
    THURSDAY = 4
    FRIDAY = 5
    SATURDAY = 6
    SUNDAY = 7

In this example, we’ve defined an Enum named Weekday with constants representing each day of the week. Instead of using obscure integers or strings, we can…