Support User Query Functions

[amzhao16]

Add get_types function, where the user can input a component (i.e. "load") and see a list of all possible default parameter sets for that component. Optionally, they can set show_ranges = True which prints the entire config of each type as well.

Add corresponding test suite for this user query functionality.

Also, made a fix to make the init parameters more efficient: just one class variable "self.count" that stores all counts instead of 5 different count variables.

[sarahmish]

Hi @amzhao16, thank you for opening up this issue! I am thinking about this implementation and have a few suggestions:

• creating counts does help us have one source for counts instead of investigating the variables of all loads, lines, etc.
• this, however, removes the readability of the PyGridSim object where now I need two steps into finding how many transformers or loads there are.
• I'm wondering if we can look into a solution that bridges both

Here is an example using __dict__ to get the attributes of a class.

In [2]: class Example:
   ...:     def __init__(self):
   ...:         self.num_loads = 0
   ...:         self.num_lines = 0
   ...:         self.num_pv = 0

In [3]: e = Example()

In [4]: e.__dict__
Out[4]: {'num_loads': 0, 'num_lines': 0, 'num_pv': 0}

or a safer implementation would be to implement a function:

def get_counts(self):
    return {
        "loads": self.num_loads,
        "lines": self.num_lines,
        ...etc
    }

[amzhao16]

Hi @amzhao16, thank you for opening up this issue! I am thinking about this implementation and have a few suggestions:

• creating counts does help us have one source for counts instead of investigating the variables of all loads, lines, etc.
• this, however, removes the readability of the PyGridSim object where now I need two steps into finding how many transformers or loads there are.
• I'm wondering if we can look into a solution that bridges both

Here is an example using __dict__ to get the attributes of a class.

In [2]: class Example:
   ...:     def __init__(self):
   ...:         self.num_loads = 0
   ...:         self.num_lines = 0
   ...:         self.num_pv = 0

In [3]: e = Example()

In [4]: e.__dict__
Out[4]: {'num_loads': 0, 'num_lines': 0, 'num_pv': 0}

or a safer implementation would be to implement a function:

def get_counts(self):
    return {
        "loads": self.num_loads,
        "lines": self.num_lines,
        ...etc
    }

I am a bit confused on how these methods reduce the number of calls we would have to make. With the dictionary, wouldn't we still need to do e.dict['num_loads'], which is I think as complicated and less readable than doing something like self.counts['num_loads'].

The function implementation still necessitates us to initiate all the variables, which is what I was trying to avoid (self.num_loads, self.num_lines, etc.) but to fetch counts I still have to go through two steps, like get_counts["loads"].

I can switch back to just using self.num_loads, self.num_lines, etc. directly if that's better, but am a bit confused on how these suggestions would mitigate the concern. Thanks, let me know if I'm missing something

[sarahmish]

It doesn't reduce the number of calls. I want to maintain the readability of the PyGridSim object, by keeping the attributes clear. If we have one attribute called count, then (1) it's like re-implementing __dict__; (2) we no longer have an idea of what the object has as attributes, we need count.keys() to figure that out.

[amzhao16]

It doesn't reduce the number of calls. I want to maintain the readability of the PyGridSim object, by keeping the attributes clear. If we have one attribute called count, then (1) it's like re-implementing __dict__; (2) we no longer have an idea of what the object has as attributes, we need count.keys() to figure that out.

Ah I understand. Would it be better to just keep the variables separate then (as it originally was), to keep the readability? I wanted to reduce the number of lines but am thinking the simplest way to preserve this would just be to have them separately. (I didn't think about the fact that users can also just do like circuit.num_loads, but given this information, probably is best to just keep it separate?)

[sarahmish]

lgtm, thanks @amzhao16!