Python代码段重构

Question

I got some little code snippet and i think about refactoring. I really don't like it in part of sort_paths_by_date method beacuse of DRY principle and code clarity:

from os.path import getctime, getmtime

class Endpoint(object):
    def __init__(self, define_path_by, paths):
        self.define_path_by = define_path_by
        self.paths = paths

    def sort_paths_by_date(self):
        if self.define_path_by == 'ctime':
            self.paths = sorted(
                self.paths,
                key=lambda cur_path: getctime(cur_path.path),
            )
        elif self.define_path_by == 'mtime':
            self.paths = sorted(
                self.paths,
                key=lambda cur_path: getmtime(cur_path.path),
            )

and i make it like this:

from os.path import getctime, getmtime

class Endpoint(object):
    def __init__(self, define_path_by, paths):
        self.define_path_by = define_path_by
        self.paths = paths

    def sort_paths_by_date(self):
        def sort_with_func(func):
            return sorted(
                self.paths, 
                key=lambda cur_path: func(cur_path.path)
            )

        if self.define_date_by == 'ctime':
            self.paths = sort_with_func(getctime)
        elif self.define_date_by == 'mtime':
            self.paths = sort_with_func(getmtime)

But now i'm not sure about function definition in method and again code clarity is confused me. So i will be appreciative for your refactoring experience here.

Answer 1

Your function does seem a little unnecessarily complicated. It could simply be this:

def sort_paths_by_date(self):
    if self.define_path_by in ('ctime', 'mtime'):
        fn = getctime if self.define_path='ctime' else getmtime
        self.paths = sorted(self.paths, key=lambda cur_path: fn(cur_path.path))