- Compared to dicts, lists etc they add structure, readability
- All have the option to add type annotations
- They are quicker to create than normal classes and have 'quality by default'
- NamedTuple: tuples with names (and types if you want)
- Attrs: "the Python package that will bring back the joy of writing classes by relieving you from the drudgery of implementing object protocols (aka dunder methods)"; powerful but not especially intuitive or pretty
- Dataclasses: a friendlier version of attrs with some of the functionality removed, most notably validators including type checkers, converters and slots
- DataclassesJSON: an add-on to dataclasses which uses marshmellow to add json based functionality including type validation and conversion
- Pydantic Dataclasses: part of the Pydantic package which "enforces type hints at runtime, and provides user friendly errors when data is invalid"
| Option | Power | Intuitiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Named Tuples | 3 | 8 |
| Attrs | 10 | 7 |
| Dataclasses | 6 | 9 |
| DataclassesJSON | 7 | 7 |
| Pydantic Dataclasses | 9 | 9 |