CLASSES AND OBJECTS ‘e know that a class is a model or plan to create objects. This means, we e write a class with the attributes and actions of objects. Attributes are represented by variables and actions are performed by methods. So, a class contains variable and methods. The same variables and methods are also available in the objects because tiey'are created from the class. These variables are also called ‘Snstance variables’ because they are created inside the instance (i.e. object). Please remember the difference between a function and a method. A function written inside a class is called a method. Generally, a method is called using one of the following two ways: 5 classname.methodname() a instancename.methodname() The general format of a class is given as follows: Class ,lassnate (object) docstring describing the class attributes Z —init_(self): det methodi():"~ 2 def method2() “eating aClass- iter wt is created with the keyword class and then writing the classname, Classname, ‘object’ is written inside the Classname. This “object * the base class name from where all classes in Python are derived Sw" own classes are also derived from ‘object’ clas es) Hence, we & Teprese Bye ni352 | Chapter 13 mention ‘object’ in since it is implied. te that writing ‘object? j es. Please no} ee 18 not paren — — / ich is written using triple double quotes ing is a string which is wr i : The dc tsog ie the complete description about the class and its usage, quotes that gi = oF triple | hence it is optional. ‘attributes’ an tin’ ; nee i : are ny tation file and he eee attire thi, used to create socom init_{self] is a special method to initialize qe Tara variables tbat ie etc. are methods that are intended to process variableg—" method1() and met _— . rite code in the class that specifi Hewe)take ee ey ony. student. For example, a atudent has attityn oa ‘name, te 7 etc. These attributes should be written “Inside suaedena oa variables. Similarly, a student can perform actions jy ae eading, etc. These actions should be represénted by thethods toe Seen dese Soe class Student contains these attributes and actions shown here: ies the Attrib is: bject): Student: # another way is: class Student(ol ye block defines attributes def init__(self): self.name = ‘Vishnu self.age = 20 self.marks = 900 # the below block defines a method def talk(self): — printC’Hi, I am ‘, self.name) print(’My age is’ » Self.age’ print(‘my marks are’, sai teanesy Observe that the keyword class is use the class name. So, ‘Student’ is our with a capital letter, hence ‘S’ is cay and_methods. Sin ed_to declare a class. After this, we Sea class name. Generally, a class name should S ; Pital in ‘Student’. In the class, we write atrit’ se in Python, we cannot declare variables, we have wile | is method is useful to initial” > w ; eal ually defined and we cannot meter ‘Self Written after the method name”. an instance for the Student elas't "TS to ie and that memory location ig 19°" 2 Separate me: ted on the variables ‘name’, ‘age’, ney Gefault stored ne ee ' ae contait instance variables, ew pode one no refet We can use 8re called i iables. TO" y : ven if s h instance varia ach sell self.name’, ‘self.age’ and Self.marks: Ct operator Notation along with § OP erate e jee the method talki), Thy, . S Meth method displays the values of the wae kes the ‘seip es Teferrj, Ting ¢ peter variable as para™ em using ‘self’.nd Objects] 353 sre methods that act on instances (or objects) of a class are called instance methods, Ys methods use ‘self as the first parameter that refers to thé location of the stance TS smory. Since i ance in the memory. Since instance methods know the location of instance. they can t_(self) and eihe instance variables. In the previous code, the two methods _j “elf are called instance methods. walks oa gent class, a student is talking to us through talk() method. He is introducing us, as shown here: tn the StU pimself to wi, I am Vishnu wy age is 20 ty marks are 900 ris ig what the talk() method displays. Writing a class like this is not_sufficie fe ir should be used. To use a class, we should create an instance (or object) to the cass Instance creation represents allotting memory necessary to store the actual data Vishnu, 20 and 900. To create an instance, the following syntax is of the variables, i used: instancename = Classname( 0, to create an instance (or object) to the Student class, we can write as: sl = student) Here, ‘s1’ is nothing but the instance name. When we create an instance like this, the following steps will take place internally: 1. First of all, a block of memory is allocated on heap. How much memory is to be allocated is decided from the attributes and methods available in the Student class. 2. After allocating the memory block, the special method by the name ‘i +_(selff’ is called internally. This method stores the initial data into the variables. Since thi method is useful to construct the instance, it is called ‘constructor’. ; useful to construct the instance, itis ¢ 3. Finally, the allocated memory location address of the instance is returned into ‘SI’ variable. To see this memory location in decimal number format, we can use id() function as id(s1). fe ‘SI’ refers to the instance of the Student class. Hence any variables or methods in instance can be referenced by ‘s1’ using dot operator as: ive. vishnu Si-name # this refers to data in name variable. i.e cger # this refers to data in age variable, i.e. 20 Shmarks # this refers to data in marks variable, 1-e. 900 stalkQ # this calls the talkQ) method=~ 354 {6 he dot operator takes the instance name at its left and the member of the j ie ¢ 13.1 shows how ‘s1’ instance of Student clagg ; Ntanee the right hand side, Figur ineren in memory: attributes nari (eam) a -+——- def _Inlt_(self): methods student() Figure 13.1: Student class instance in memory Program 1: A Python program to define Student class and create an object to it, Also, we will call the method and display the student's details. # instance variables and instance method class Student: # this is a special method called constructor. def _init_(self): self.name = ‘Vishnu! self.age = 20 self.marks = 900 # this is an instance method. def talk(self): prime cis I am', self.name) print(’my age is', self.age) print('my marks are', self.marks) # create an instance to Student c sl = Student() ee # cal] the method i sr talkO jod using the instance. Output: C:\>python cl. Hi, I am Vishny, My age is 20 My marks are 900Classes and Objects | 355 program 1, we used the ‘self variable to refer to the instance of the same class. Also, In Prot sed a special method ‘_init_(self)’ that initializes the variables of the instance. Let’s oy more clarity on these two concepts, ha the Self Variable ‘gl? is a default variable that contains the memory address of the instance of the current class. So, We can use ‘self’ to refer to all the instance variables and instance methods. When an instance to the class is created, the instance name contains the memory location of the instance. This memory location is internally passed to ‘self. For example, we create an instance to Student class as: sl'= StudentQ) Here, ‘sl’ contains the memory address of the instance. This memory address is intemally and by default passed to ‘self variable. Since ‘self’ knows the memor ofthe instance, it can refer to all the members of the instance. We use ‘self’ in 2 The ‘self variable is used as first parameter in the constructor as: def init__(self): In this case, ‘self can be used to refer to the instance variables inside the constructor. ‘self can be used as first parameter in the instance methods as: def talk(self): Here, talk() is instance method as it acts on the instance variables. If this method wants to act on the instance variables, it should know the memory location of the instance variables. That memory location is by default available to the talk() method through ‘self. Constructor ‘ constructor is a special method that is used to initialize the instance variables of a Glass. In the constructor, we create the instance variabl and initialize them with some Saning values. The first parameter of the constructor will be ‘self’ iable that contains © memory address of the instance. For example, a def =init_(self): self.name = ‘Vishnu’ self.marks = 900 » the co; ‘selfmarks, y the time of an instance Here, nstructor_has only one parameter, i.e. ‘self. Using ‘self.name’ and Me can access the instance variables of the class. A_constructor is called at “reating an instance. So, the above constructor will be called when we create e as: hme em SUS student