Sending arguments to Python decorators

Python's decorators are tools for changing the behavior of a function without completely recoding it. When we apply a decorator to a function, we say that the function has been decorated. Strictly speaking, when we decorate a function, we send it to a wrapper that returns another function. It's as simple as that.

I was having trouble understanding exactly to which function, the original or the decorated one, the arguments are sent in a Python decorated function call. I wrote the following script to better understand this process (I use Python 3.4):

def wrapper(inFunction):
    def outFunction(**kwargs):
        print('The input arguments were:')
        for key, value in kwargs.items():
            print('%r : %r' % (key, value))

        # Return the original function
        return inFunction(**kwargs)

    return outFunction

def add(x = 1, y = 2):
    return x + y

wrapper(inFunction) is a function that accepts another function as an argument. It returns a function that simply prints the keyword arguments of inFunction(), and calls inFunction() like normal.

To decorate the function add(x = 1, y = 2) so that its arguments are printed without recoding it, we normally would place @wrapper before its definition. However, let's make the decorator in a way that's closer to how @ works under the hood:

In [22]: decoratedAdd = wrapper(add)
In [23]: decoratedAdd(x = 1, y = 24)
The input arguments were:
'y' : 24
'x' : 1
Out[23]: 25

When we call decoratedAdd(x = 1, y = 24), the arguments are printed to the screen and we still get the same functionality of add(). What I wanted to know was this: are the keyword arguments x = 1, y = 24 bound in the namespace of wrapper() or in the namespace of outFunction()? In otherwords, does wrapper() at any point know what the arguments are that I send to the decorated function?

The answer, as it turns out, is no in this case. This is because the wrapper() function first returns the decorated function, and then the arguments are passed into the decorated function. If this order of operations were flipped, wrapper() should know that I set x to 1 and y to 24, but really it doesn't know these details at all.

In [24]: wrapper(add)(x = 1, y = 24)
The input arguments were:
'y' : 24
'x' : 1
Out[24]: 25

So, when I call wrapper(add)(x = 1, y = 24), first wrapper(add) is called, which returns outFunction(), and then these arguments are passed to outFunction().

Now what happens when I call wrapper(add(x = 1, y = 24))? When I try this, the arguments are first passed into add, but then outFunction is returned without any arguments applied to it.

This example can give us an idea about the working order of operations in Python. Here, this example reveals that function calls in Python are left-associative.