What are the differences between decorators and mixins?

What are the differences between decorators and mixins?

Decorators are functions that modify the behavior of another function or class, while mixins are classes that provide methods to other classes through inheritance.

Can you give me an example of a decorator?

Sure! A simple example of a decorator is one that logs the execution time of a function. You can wrap a function with this decorator to measure how long it takes to run.

And how about a mixin?

A mixin could be a class that adds logging capabilities to any class that inherits from it. For instance, if you have a LoggerMixin, any class that includes it can log messages.

When should I use a decorator instead of a mixin?

Use decorators when you want to enhance or modify a specific function's behavior, and use mixins when you want to share functionality across multiple classes.