title: Pickle class instance plus definition?
body: <p>This is a problem which I suspect is common, but I haven't found a solution for it. What I want is quite simple, and seemingly technically feasible: I have a simple python class, and I want to store it on disc, instance and definition, in a single file. Pickle will store the data, but it doesn't store the class definition. One might argue that the class definition is already stored in my .py file, but I don't want a separate .py file; my goal is to have a self-contained single file that I could pop back into my namespace with a single line of code.</p>
  
  <p>So yes, I know this possible using two files and two lines of code, but I want it in one file and one line of code. The reason why is because I often find myself in this situation; I'm working on some big dataset, manipulating it in python, and then having to write my sliced, diced and transformed data back into some preexisting directory structure. What I don't want is to litter these data-directories with ill-named python class stubs to keep my code and data associated, and what I want even less is the hassle of keeping track of and organizing all these little ad hoc classes defined on the fly in a script independently. </p>
  
  <p>So the convenience isn't so much in code readability, but in effortless and unfudgable association between code and data. That seems like a worthy goal to me, even though I understand it isn't appropriate in most situations.</p>
  
  <p>So the question is: Is there a package or code snippet that does such a thing, because I can't seem to find any.</p>