Implementation:TA Lib Ta lib python Abstract Function Constructor

Knowledge Sources	ta-lib-python
Domains	Technical_Analysis, Software_Architecture
Last Updated	2026-02-09 22:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for creating Abstract API Function objects provided by the abstract.Function factory and _Function.__init__ Cython class.

Description

The Function factory in talib/abstract.py validates the function name and delegates to _Function.__init__ in the Cython extension. The Cython class queries the TA-Lib abstract interface for function metadata (input names, parameters, output names) and stores a reference to the bound C function object.

Pre-instantiated Function objects are available as module globals (abstract.SMA, abstract.RSI, etc.), created at import time.

Usage

Use this when you need to create an indicator function object dynamically by name, or when using the object-oriented Abstract API interface.

Code Reference

Source Location

Repository: ta-lib-python
File: talib/abstract.py (L13-20), talib/_abstract.pxi (L88-128)

Signature

# Factory function in abstract.py
def Function(function_name: str, *args, **kwargs) -> _Function:
    """
    Creates a Function object for the named TA-Lib indicator.

    Args:
        function_name: Indicator name (case-insensitive), e.g., 'sma', 'BBANDS'
        *args: Optional input arrays and parameters
        **kwargs: Optional named parameters

    Returns:
        _Function instance with bound C function

    Raises:
        Exception: If function_name is not supported by TA-Lib
    """

# Cython class in _abstract.pxi
class Function(object):
    def __init__(self, function_name: str, func_object: callable, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        Initialize with function name and C function binding.
        Queries TA-Lib abstract interface for metadata.
        """

Import

from talib import abstract

# Or use pre-instantiated globals
from talib.abstract import Function, SMA, RSI, BBANDS

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
function_name	str	Yes	Indicator name (case-insensitive). One of 161 supported names.
*args	arrays/params	No	Optional input arrays and positional parameters
**kwargs	params	No	Optional named parameters (e.g., timeperiod=20)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
function_object	_Function	Configured Function instance with .info, .parameters, .input_names properties

Usage Examples

Basic Instantiation

from talib import abstract

# Create by name (case-insensitive)
sma = abstract.Function('sma')
bbands = abstract.Function('BBANDS')

# Inspect metadata
print(sma.info)
# {'name': 'SMA', 'group': 'Overlap Studies', 'input_names': ..., 'parameters': ..., 'output_names': ...}

Pre-instantiated Globals

from talib.abstract import SMA, RSI

# These are already Function instances
print(SMA.info)
print(RSI.parameters)  # OrderedDict([('timeperiod', 14)])

Instantiation With Data

import numpy as np
from talib import abstract

inputs = {'close': np.random.random(100)}
result = abstract.Function('SMA', inputs, timeperiod=20)
# Creates function, sets inputs, sets params, and returns outputs

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