Understanding MVC in a QAbstractTableModel

Question

I have some data which are represented by a class of my own ; to fix the ideas I give an example.

class MyOwnModel():
  def __init__(self, name="", number=0):
    self.name = name
    self.number = number

I then have a list of such instances, that I want to represent in a QTableView.

li = [MyOwnModel("a", 1), MyOwnModel("b", 2)]

Then I see two strategies to make a QTableView from that :

1. change MyOwnModel so that it subclasses QAbstractTableModel
2. build a new QAbstractTableModel which mimics MyOwnModel in a way that its attributes are for instance two QString and connect the dataChanged signal to a function which updates the instance of MyOwnModel

I am not completely satisfied with any of these, but I have no other idea for the moment.

Which one is the most suitable to my problem ? (I have a more complex class in practice but I would like to use the same framework)

Answer 1

As stated in the comment, your model is your list of object. You should subclass QAbstractTableModel to use this list.

Here's my code snippet for this:

import sys
import signal
import PyQt4.QtCore as PCore
import PyQt4.QtGui as PGui

class OneRow(PCore.QObject):
    def __init__(self):
        self.column0="text in column 0"
        self.column1="text in column 1"

class TableModel(PCore.QAbstractTableModel):
    def __init__(self):
        super(TableModel,self).__init__()
        self.myList=[]

    def addRow(self,rowObject):
        row=len(self.myList)
        self.beginInsertRows(PCore.QModelIndex(),row,row)
        self.myList.append(rowObject)
        self.endInsertRows()

    #number of row
    def rowCount(self,QModelIndex):
        return len(self.myList)

    #number of columns
    def columnCount(self,QModelIndex):
        return 2

    #Define what do you print in the cells
    def data(self,index,role):
        row=index.row()
        col=index.column()
        if role==PCore.Qt.DisplayRole:
            if col==0:
                return str( self.myList[row].column0)
            if col==1:
                return str( self.myList[row].column1)

    #Rename the columns
    def headerData(self,section,orientation,role):
        if role==PCore.Qt.DisplayRole:
            if orientation==PCore.Qt.Horizontal:
                if section==0:
                    return str("Column 1")
                elif section==1:
                    return str("Column 2")

if __name__=='__main__':
    PGui.QApplication.setStyle("plastique")
    app=PGui.QApplication(sys.argv)

    #Model
    model=TableModel()
    model.addRow(OneRow())
    model.addRow(OneRow())

    #View
    win=PGui.QTableView()
    win.setModel(model)

    #to be able to close wth ctrl+c
    signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal.SIG_DFL)
    #to avoid warning when closing
    win.setAttribute(PCore.Qt.WA_DeleteOnClose)

    win.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Each element of myList is a row in the table.