Conversion traits

PyO3 provides some handy traits to convert between Python types and Rust types.

`.extract()` and the `FromPyObject` trait

The easiest way to convert a Python object to a Rust value is using .extract(). It returns a PyResult with a type error if the conversion fails, so usually you will use something like

let v: Vec<i32> = obj.extract()?;

This method is available for many Python object types, and can produce a wide variety of Rust types, which you can check out in the implementor list of FromPyObject.

FromPyObject is also implemented for your own Rust types wrapped as Python objects (see the chapter about classes). There, in order to both be able to operate on mutable references and satisfy Rust's rules of non-aliasing mutable references, you have to extract the PyO3 reference wrappers PyRef and PyRefMut. They work like the reference wrappers of std::cell::RefCell and ensure (at runtime) that Rust borrows are allowed.

Deriving `FromPyObject`

FromPyObject can be automatically derived for many kinds of structs and enums if the member types themselves implement FromPyObject. This even includes members with a generic type T: FromPyObject. Derivation for empty enums, enum variants and structs is not supported.

Deriving `FromPyObject` for structs

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyStruct {
    my_string: String,
}

The derivation generates code that will per default access the attribute my_string on the Python object, i.e. obj.getattr("my_string"), and call extract() on the attribute. It is also possible to access the value on the Python object through obj.get_item("my_string") by setting the attribute pyo3(item) on the field:

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyStruct {
    #[pyo3(item)]
    my_string: String,
}

The argument passed to getattr and get_item can also be configured:

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyStruct {
    #[pyo3(item("key"))]
    string_in_mapping: String,
    #[pyo3(attribute("name"))]
    string_attr: String,
}

This tries to extract string_attr from the attribute name and string_in_mapping from a mapping with the key "key". The arguments for attribute are restricted to non-empty string literals while item can take any valid literal that implements ToBorrowedObject.

Deriving `FromPyObject` for tuple structs

Tuple structs are also supported but do not allow customizing the extraction. The input is always assumed to be a Python tuple with the same length as the Rust type, the nth field is extracted from the nth item in the Python tuple.

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyTuple(String, String);

Tuple structs with a single field are treated as wrapper types which are described in the following section. To override this behaviour and ensure that the input is in fact a tuple, specify the struct as

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyTuple((String,));

Deriving `FromPyObject` for wrapper types

The pyo3(transparent) attribute can be used on structs with exactly one field. This results in extracting directly from the input object, i.e. obj.extract(), rather than trying to access an item or attribute. This behaviour is enabled per default for newtype structs and tuple-variants with a single field.

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
struct RustyTransparentTupleStruct(String);

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
#[pyo3(transparent)]
struct RustyTransparentStruct {
    inner: String,
}

Deriving `FromPyObject` for enums

The FromPyObject derivation for enums generates code that tries to extract the variants in the order of the fields. As soon as a variant can be extracted succesfully, that variant is returned. This makes it possible to extract Python types like Union[str, int].

The same customizations and restrictions described for struct derivations apply to enum variants, i.e. a tuple variant assumes that the input is a Python tuple, and a struct variant defaults to extracting fields as attributes but can be configured in the same manner. The transparent attribute can be applied to single-field-variants.

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
enum RustyEnum<'a> {
    Int(usize), // input is a positive int
    String(String), // input is a string
    IntTuple(usize, usize), // input is a 2-tuple with positive ints
    StringIntTuple(String, usize), // input is a 2-tuple with String and int
    Coordinates3d { // needs to be in front of 2d
        x: usize,
        y: usize,
        z: usize,
    },
    Coordinates2d { // only gets checked if the input did not have `z`
        #[pyo3(attribute("x"))]
        a: usize,
        #[pyo3(attribute("y"))]
        b: usize,
    },
    #[pyo3(transparent)]
    CatchAll(&'a PyAny), // This extraction never fails
}

If none of the enum variants match, a PyValueError containing the names of the tested variants is returned. The names reported in the error message can be customized through the pyo3(annotation = "name") attribute, e.g. to use conventional Python type names:

use pyo3::prelude::*;

#[derive(FromPyObject)]
enum RustyEnum {
    #[pyo3(transparent, annotation = "str")]
    String(String),
    #[pyo3(transparent, annotation = "int")]
    Int(isize),
}

If the input is neither a string nor an integer, the error message will be: "'<INPUT_TYPE>' cannot be converted to 'Union[str, int]'".

`#[derive(FromPyObject)]` Container Attributes

pyo3(transparent)
- extract the field directly from the object as obj.extract() instead of get_item() or getattr()
- Newtype structs and tuple-variants are treated as transparent per default.
- only supported for single-field structs and enum variants
pyo3(annotation = "name")
- changes the name of the failed variant in the generated error message in case of failure.
- e.g. pyo3("int") reports the variant's type as int.
- only supported for enum variants

`#[derive(FromPyObject)]` Field Attributes

pyo3(attribute), pyo3(attribute("name"))
- retrieve the field from an attribute, possibly with a custom name specified as an argument
- argument must be a string-literal.
pyo3(item), pyo3(item("key"))
- retrieve the field from a mapping, possibly with the custom key specified as an argument.
- can be any literal that implements ToBorrowedObject

`IntoPy<T>`

This trait defines the to-python conversion for a Rust type. It is usually implemented as IntoPy<PyObject>, which is the trait needed for returning a value from #[pyfunction] and #[pymethods].

All types in PyO3 implement this trait, as does a #[pyclass] which doesn't use extends.

Occasionally you may choose to implement this for custom types which are mapped to Python types without having a unique python type.

use pyo3::prelude::*;

struct MyPyObjectWrapper(PyObject);

impl IntoPy<PyObject> for MyPyObjectWrapper {
    fn into_py(self, py: Python) -> PyObject {
        self.0
    }
}

The `ToPyObject` trait

ToPyObject is a conversion trait that allows various objects to be converted into PyObject. IntoPy<PyObject> serves the same purpose, except that it consumes self.

PyO3 user guide