[Mock any python object/function] Create a fake object/function to disable an object/function that is called later #python

mock_func.py

# Assume our code has some function that is called later (possibly called multiple times). 
#   In the code below, we have a logging function, and we don't want to always use the logger.
# Instead of adding an `if disable_logging` line every time we log something with the logging function, 
#   we can instead just replace the logging function with a fake function that does nothing.

def mock_logger(*args, **kwargs):
     pass

if disable_logging:
    logger = mock_logger
else:
    logger = SomeLoggingFunc

logger("hi") # Nothing will happen if you use mock_logger

mock_obj.py

# We can also replace an entire object with a fake object that does nothing for all object functions.

class FakeObject():
    def __init__(*args, **kwargs): pass
    def nop(*args, **kw): pass
    def __getattr__(self, attr): return self.nop

if disable_logging:
    summary_writer = FakeObject()
else:
    summary_writer = SummaryWriter(logdir=config.summary_dir, comment='Logging Agent')
    
summary_writer.add_scalar(45) # Nothing will happen if using FakeObject