7.5.8 Weak Reference Objects

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7.5.8 Weak Reference Objects

Python supports weak references as first-class objects. There are two specific object types which directly implement weak references. The first is a simple reference object, and the second acts as a proxy for the original object as much as it can.

int `PyWeakref_Check`( | ob)

  Return true if ob is either a reference or proxy object. New in version 2.2.

int `PyWeakref_CheckRef`( | ob)

  Return true if ob is a reference object. New in version 2.2.

int `PyWeakref_CheckProxy`( | ob)

  Return true if ob is a proxy object. New in version 2.2.

PyObject* `PyWeakref_NewRef`( | PyObject *ob, PyObject *callback)

  Return value: New reference.
  Return a weak reference object for the object ob. This will always return a new reference, but is not guaranteed to create a new object; an existing reference object may be returned. The second parameter, callback, can be a callable object that receives notification when ob is garbage collected; it should accept a single parameter, which will be the weak reference object itself. callback may also be `None` or `NULL`. If ob is not a weakly-referencable object, or if callback is not callable, `None`, or `NULL`, this will return `NULL` and raise `TypeError`. New in version 2.2.

PyObject* `PyWeakref_NewProxy`( | PyObject *ob, PyObject *callback)

  Return value: New reference.
  Return a weak reference proxy object for the object ob. This will always return a new reference, but is not guaranteed to create a new object; an existing proxy object may be returned. The second parameter, callback, can be a callable object that receives notification when ob is garbage collected; it should accept a single parameter, which will be the weak reference object itself. callback may also be `None` or `NULL`. If ob is not a weakly-referencable object, or if callback is not callable, `None`, or `NULL`, this will return `NULL` and raise `TypeError`. New in version 2.2.

PyObject* `PyWeakref_GetObject`( | PyObject *ref)

  Return value: Borrowed reference.
  Return the referenced object from a weak reference, ref. If the referent is no longer live, returns `None`. New in version 2.2.

PyObject* `PyWeakref_GET_OBJECT`( | PyObject *ref)

  Return value: Borrowed reference.
  Similar to `PyWeakref_GetObject()`, but implemented as a macro that does no error checking. New in version 2.2.