abc.abstractmethod()

@abc.abstractmethod

A decorator indicating abstract methods.

Using this decorator requires that the class’s metaclass is ABCMeta or is derived from it. A class that has a metaclass derived from ABCMeta cannot be instantiated unless all of its abstract methods and properties are overridden. The abstract methods can be called using any of the normal ‘super’ call mechanisms. abstractmethod() may be used to declare abstract methods for properties and descriptors.

Dynamically adding abstract methods to a class, or attempting to modify the abstraction status of a method or class once it is created, are not supported. The abstractmethod() only affects subclasses derived using regular inheritance; “virtual subclasses” registered with the ABC’s register() method are not affected.

When abstractmethod() is applied in combination with other method descriptors, it should be applied as the innermost decorator, as shown in the following usage examples:

class C(metaclass=ABCMeta):
    @abstractmethod
    def my_abstract_method(self, ...):
        ...
    @classmethod
    @abstractmethod
    def my_abstract_classmethod(cls, ...):
        ...
    @staticmethod
    @abstractmethod
    def my_abstract_staticmethod(...):
        ...

    @property
    @abstractmethod
    def my_abstract_property(self):
        ...
    @my_abstract_property.setter
    @abstractmethod
    def my_abstract_property(self, val):
        ...

    @abstractmethod
    def _get_x(self):
        ...
    @abstractmethod
    def _set_x(self, val):
        ...
    x = property(_get_x, _set_x)

In order to correctly interoperate with the abstract base class machinery, the descriptor must identify itself as abstract using __isabstractmethod__. In general, this attribute should be True if any of the methods used to compose the descriptor are abstract. For example, Python’s built-in property does the equivalent of:

class Descriptor:
    ...
    @property
    def __isabstractmethod__(self):
        return any(getattr(f, '__isabstractmethod__', False) for
                   f in (self._fget, self._fset, self._fdel))