302 lines
8.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
302 lines
8.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _basics:
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First steps
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###########
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This sections demonstrates the basic features of pybind11. Before getting
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started, make sure that development environment is set up to compile the
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included set of test cases.
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Compiling the test cases
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========================
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Linux/macOS
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-----------
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On Linux you'll need to install the **python-dev** or **python3-dev** packages as
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well as **cmake**. On macOS, the included python version works out of the box,
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but **cmake** must still be installed.
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After installing the prerequisites, run
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.. code-block:: bash
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mkdir build
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cd build
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cmake ..
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make check -j 4
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The last line will both compile and run the tests.
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Windows
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-------
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On Windows, only **Visual Studio 2015** and newer are supported since pybind11 relies
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on various C++11 language features that break older versions of Visual Studio.
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.. Note::
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To use the C++17 in Visual Studio 2017 (MSVC 14.1), pybind11 requires the flag
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``/permissive-`` to be passed to the compiler `to enforce standard conformance`_. When
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building with Visual Studio 2019, this is not strictly necessary, but still adviced.
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.. _`to enforce standard conformance`: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/permissive-standards-conformance?view=vs-2017
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To compile and run the tests:
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.. code-block:: batch
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mkdir build
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cd build
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cmake ..
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cmake --build . --config Release --target check
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This will create a Visual Studio project, compile and run the target, all from the
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command line.
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.. Note::
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If all tests fail, make sure that the Python binary and the testcases are compiled
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for the same processor type and bitness (i.e. either **i386** or **x86_64**). You
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can specify **x86_64** as the target architecture for the generated Visual Studio
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project using ``cmake -A x64 ..``.
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.. seealso::
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Advanced users who are already familiar with Boost.Python may want to skip
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the tutorial and look at the test cases in the :file:`tests` directory,
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which exercise all features of pybind11.
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Header and namespace conventions
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================================
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For brevity, all code examples assume that the following two lines are present:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
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namespace py = pybind11;
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Some features may require additional headers, but those will be specified as needed.
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.. _simple_example:
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Creating bindings for a simple function
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=======================================
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Let's start by creating Python bindings for an extremely simple function, which
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adds two numbers and returns their result:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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int add(int i, int j) {
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return i + j;
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}
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For simplicity [#f1]_, we'll put both this function and the binding code into
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a file named :file:`example.cpp` with the following contents:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
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int add(int i, int j) {
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return i + j;
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}
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PYBIND11_MODULE(example, m) {
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m.doc() = "pybind11 example plugin"; // optional module docstring
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m.def("add", &add, "A function which adds two numbers");
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}
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.. [#f1] In practice, implementation and binding code will generally be located
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in separate files.
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The :func:`PYBIND11_MODULE` macro creates a function that will be called when an
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``import`` statement is issued from within Python. The module name (``example``)
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is given as the first macro argument (it should not be in quotes). The second
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argument (``m``) defines a variable of type :class:`py::module <module>` which
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is the main interface for creating bindings. The method :func:`module::def`
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generates binding code that exposes the ``add()`` function to Python.
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.. note::
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Notice how little code was needed to expose our function to Python: all
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details regarding the function's parameters and return value were
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automatically inferred using template metaprogramming. This overall
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approach and the used syntax are borrowed from Boost.Python, though the
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underlying implementation is very different.
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pybind11 is a header-only library, hence it is not necessary to link against
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any special libraries and there are no intermediate (magic) translation steps.
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On Linux, the above example can be compiled using the following command:
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.. code-block:: bash
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$ c++ -O3 -Wall -shared -std=c++11 -fPIC `python3 -m pybind11 --includes` example.cpp -o example`python3-config --extension-suffix`
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For more details on the required compiler flags on Linux and macOS, see
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:ref:`building_manually`. For complete cross-platform compilation instructions,
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refer to the :ref:`compiling` page.
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The `python_example`_ and `cmake_example`_ repositories are also a good place
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to start. They are both complete project examples with cross-platform build
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systems. The only difference between the two is that `python_example`_ uses
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Python's ``setuptools`` to build the module, while `cmake_example`_ uses CMake
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(which may be preferable for existing C++ projects).
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.. _python_example: https://github.com/pybind/python_example
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.. _cmake_example: https://github.com/pybind/cmake_example
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Building the above C++ code will produce a binary module file that can be
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imported to Python. Assuming that the compiled module is located in the
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current directory, the following interactive Python session shows how to
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load and execute the example:
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.. code-block:: pycon
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$ python
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Python 2.7.10 (default, Aug 22 2015, 20:33:39)
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[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.0.0 (clang-700.0.59.1)] on darwin
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Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
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>>> import example
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>>> example.add(1, 2)
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3L
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>>>
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.. _keyword_args:
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Keyword arguments
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=================
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With a simple code modification, it is possible to inform Python about the
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names of the arguments ("i" and "j" in this case).
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.. code-block:: cpp
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m.def("add", &add, "A function which adds two numbers",
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py::arg("i"), py::arg("j"));
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:class:`arg` is one of several special tag classes which can be used to pass
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metadata into :func:`module::def`. With this modified binding code, we can now
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call the function using keyword arguments, which is a more readable alternative
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particularly for functions taking many parameters:
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.. code-block:: pycon
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>>> import example
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>>> example.add(i=1, j=2)
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3L
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The keyword names also appear in the function signatures within the documentation.
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.. code-block:: pycon
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>>> help(example)
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....
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FUNCTIONS
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add(...)
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Signature : (i: int, j: int) -> int
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A function which adds two numbers
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A shorter notation for named arguments is also available:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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// regular notation
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m.def("add1", &add, py::arg("i"), py::arg("j"));
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// shorthand
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using namespace pybind11::literals;
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m.def("add2", &add, "i"_a, "j"_a);
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The :var:`_a` suffix forms a C++11 literal which is equivalent to :class:`arg`.
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Note that the literal operator must first be made visible with the directive
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``using namespace pybind11::literals``. This does not bring in anything else
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from the ``pybind11`` namespace except for literals.
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.. _default_args:
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Default arguments
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=================
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Suppose now that the function to be bound has default arguments, e.g.:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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int add(int i = 1, int j = 2) {
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return i + j;
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}
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Unfortunately, pybind11 cannot automatically extract these parameters, since they
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are not part of the function's type information. However, they are simple to specify
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using an extension of :class:`arg`:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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m.def("add", &add, "A function which adds two numbers",
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py::arg("i") = 1, py::arg("j") = 2);
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The default values also appear within the documentation.
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.. code-block:: pycon
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>>> help(example)
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....
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FUNCTIONS
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add(...)
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Signature : (i: int = 1, j: int = 2) -> int
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A function which adds two numbers
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The shorthand notation is also available for default arguments:
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.. code-block:: cpp
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// regular notation
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m.def("add1", &add, py::arg("i") = 1, py::arg("j") = 2);
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// shorthand
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m.def("add2", &add, "i"_a=1, "j"_a=2);
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Exporting variables
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===================
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To expose a value from C++, use the ``attr`` function to register it in a
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module as shown below. Built-in types and general objects (more on that later)
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are automatically converted when assigned as attributes, and can be explicitly
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converted using the function ``py::cast``.
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.. code-block:: cpp
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PYBIND11_MODULE(example, m) {
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m.attr("the_answer") = 42;
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py::object world = py::cast("World");
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m.attr("what") = world;
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}
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These are then accessible from Python:
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.. code-block:: pycon
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>>> import example
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>>> example.the_answer
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42
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>>> example.what
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'World'
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.. _supported_types:
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Supported data types
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====================
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A large number of data types are supported out of the box and can be used
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seamlessly as functions arguments, return values or with ``py::cast`` in general.
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For a full overview, see the :doc:`advanced/cast/index` section.
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