What is the role and application of decorators in Python?

Decorators in Python are functions that take another function and return a new function with extended or modified behavior. They allow adding functionality to functions or methods without changing their original code.

Applications:

• Logging function calls.
• Access control.
• Caching results.
• Measuring execution time.

Example of a simple decorator:

def decorator(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        print("Before calling the function")
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
        print("After calling the function")
        return result
    return wrapper

@decorator
def say_hello():
    print("Hello!")

say_hello()