Python Programming

(Classes and Objects)

Hyuntae Cho
Dept. of Digital Content
Tongmyong University
Python Classes/Objects
• Python is an object oriented programming language.

• Almost everything in Python is an object, with its properties and

methods.

• A Class is like an object constructor, or a "blueprint" for creating

objects.

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Create a Class
• To create a class, use the keyword class:

• Example
– Create a class named MyClass, with a property named x:

• Create Object
• Now we can use the class named MyClass to create objects:
• Example
– Create an object named p1, and print the value of x:

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The __init__() Function
• The examples above are classes and objects in their simplest form,
and are not really useful in real life applications.

• To understand the meaning of classes we have to understand the

built-in __init__() function.

• All classes have a function called __init__(), which is always executed

when the class is being initiated.

• Use the __init__() function to assign values to object properties, or

other operations that are necessary to do when the object is being
created:

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The __init__() Function
• Example
• Create a class named Person, use the __init__() function to assign
values for name and age:

Note: The __init__() function is called automatically every time the class is being used to create a new object.

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The __str__() Function
• The __str__() function controls what should be returned when the
class object is represented as a string.

• If the __str__() function is not set, the string representation of the

object is returned:

• Example
• The string representation of an object WITHOUT the __str__()
function:

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The __str__() Function
• Example
• The string representation of an object WITH the __str__() function:

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 Object Methods
• Objects can also contain methods. Methods in objects are functions
that belong to the object.

• Let us create a method in the Person class:

• Example
– Insert a function that prints a greeting, and execute it on the p1 object:

Note: The self parameter is a reference to the current instance of

8 the class, and is used to access variables that belong to the cla
The self Parameter
• The self parameter is a reference to the current instance of the class,
and is used to access variables that belongs to the class.

• It does not have to be named self , you can call it whatever you like,
but it has to be the first parameter of any function in the class:

• Example
– Use the words mysillyobject and abc instead of self:

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Modify Object Properties
• You can modify properties on objects like this:

• Example
– Set the age of p1 to 40:

– Practice:

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Delete Object Properties
• You can delete properties on objects by using the del keyword:
• Example
– Delete the age property from the p1 object:

– practice

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Delete Objects
• You can delete objects by using the del keyword:
• Example
– Delete the p1 object:

– practice

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 Python Programming
(Inheritance)

Hyuntae Cho
Dept. of Digital Content
Tongmyong University
Python Inheritance

• Inheritance allows us to define a class that inherits all the methods

and properties from another class.

• Parent class is the class being inherited from, also called base class.

• Child class is the class that inherits from another class, also called
derived class.

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Create a Parent Class
• Any class can be a parent class, so the syntax is the same as creating
any other class:

• Example
– Create a class named Person, with firstname and lastname properties, and a
printname method:

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Create a Child Class
• To create a class that inherits the functionality from another class,
send the parent class as a parameter when creating the child class:

• Example
– Create a class named Student, which will inherit the properties and methods
from the Person class:

Note: Use the pass keyword when you do not want to add any other properties or methods to the class.

• Now the Student class has the same properties and methods as the
Person class.
• Example
– Use the Student class to create an object, and then execute the printname
method:

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Create a Child Class
• Total codes:

Inheritance

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Add the __init__() Function
• So far we have created a child class that inherits the properties and
methods from its parent.

• We want to add the __init__() function to the child class (instead of

the pass keyword).

Note: The __init__() function is called automatically every time the class is being used to create a new object.

• Example
– Add the __init__() function to the Student class:

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Add the __init__() Function
• When you add the __init__() function, the child class will no
longer inherit the parent's __init__() function.

• Note: The child's __init__() function overrides the inheritance of the

parent's __init__() function.

• To keep the inheritance of the parent's __init__() function, add a call

to the parent's __init__() function:

Full code in
next page

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Add the __init__() Function

Now we have successfully added the __init__() function, and kept the inheritance of the parent
class, and we are ready to add functionality in the __init__() function.

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 Use the super() Function
• Python also has a super() function that will make the child class
inherit all the methods and properties from its parent:

Full code

By using the super() function, you do not have to use the name of the parent element, it will
automatically inherit the methods and properties from its parent.

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Add Properties
• Example 1
– Add a property called graduationyear to the Student class:

Full code

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Add Properties
• Example 2
– Add a year parameter, and pass the correct year when creating objects:

Full code

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Add Methods
• Example
– Add a method called welcome to the Student class:

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Add Methods
• Full code

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Practice

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 Python Programming
(Iterator)

Hyuntae Cho
Dept. of Digital Content
Tongmyong University
Python Iterators
• An iterator is an object that contains a countable number of values.

• An iterator is an object that can be iterated upon, meaning that you

can traverse through all the values.

• Technically, in Python, an iterator is an object which implements the

iterator protocol, which consist of the methods __iter__() and
__next__().

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Iterator vs Iterable
• Lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets are all iterable objects. They are
iterable containers which you can get an iterator from.

• All these objects have a iter() method which is used to get an

iterator:

• Example
– Return an iterator from a tuple, and print each value:

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Iterator vs Iterable
• Even strings are iterable objects, and can return an iterator:

• Example
– Strings are also iterable objects, containing a sequence of characters:

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Looping Through an Iterator
• We can also use a for loop to iterate through an iterable object:

• Example
– Iterate the values of a tuple:

• Example
– Iterate the characters of a string:

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Create an Iterator

• To create an object/class as an iterator you have to implement the

methods __iter__() and __next__() to your object.

• As you have learned in the Python Classes/Objects chapter, all classes

have a function called __init__(), which allows you to do some
initializing when the object is being created.

• The __iter__() method acts similar, you can do operations (initializing

etc.), but must always return the iterator object itself.

• The __next__() method also allows you to do operations, and must

return the next item in the sequence.

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Create an Iterator
• Example
– Create an iterator that returns numbers, starting with 1, and each sequence
will increase by one (returning 1,2,3,4,5 etc.):

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StopIteration
• The example above would continue forever if you had enough next()
statements, or if it was used in a for loop.

• To prevent the iteration from going on forever, we can use the

StopIteration statement.

• In the __next__() method, we can add a terminating condition to raise

an error if the iteration is done a specified number of times:

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StopIteration
• Example
• Stop after 20 iterations:

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 Python Programming
(Polymorphism)

Hyuntae Cho
Dept. of Digital Content
Tongmyong University
Python Polymorphism
• The word "polymorphism" means "many forms", and in
programming it refers to methods/functions/operators with the same
name that can be executed on many objects or classes.

• Function Polymorphism
– An example of a Python function that can be used on different objects is the
len() function.

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Function Polymorphism
• String
– For strings len() returns the number of characters:

• Tuple
– For tuples len() returns the number of items in the tuple:

• Dictionary
– For dictionaries len() returns the number of key/value pairs in the dictionary:

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Class Polymorphism
• Polymorphism is often used in Class methods, where we can have
multiple classes with the same method name.

• For example, say we have three classes: Car, Boat, and Plane, and
they all have a method called move():

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 Look at the for loop at the end. Because of
polymorphism we can execute the same
Class Polymorphism method for all three classes.

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Inheritance Class Polymorphism
• What about classes with child classes with the same name? Can we
use polymorphism there?

• Yes. If we use the example above and make a parent class called
Vehicle, and make Car, Boat, Plane child classes of Vehicle, the child
classes inherits the Vehicle methods, but can override them:

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Inheritance Class Polymorphism
• Example
– Create a class called Vehicle and make Car, Boat, Plane child classes of
Vehicle:

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Inheritance Class Polymorphism
• Child classes inherits the properties and methods from the parent
class.

• In the example above you can see that the Car class is empty, but it
inherits brand, model, and move() from Vehicle.

• The Boat and Plane classes also inherit brand, model, and move()
from Vehicle, but they both override the move() method.

• Because of polymorphism we can execute the same method for all

classes.

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Conclusion

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