Chapter 14

Object-Oriented Programming

About a year or so after I started programming, I decided to make a game to play Wheel of Fortune.
I wrote the program in the BASIC programming language and it got to be pretty large, a couple
thousand lines. It mostly worked, but whenever I tried to fix something, my fix would break
something in a completely different part of the program. I would then fix that and break something
else. Eventually I got the program working, but after a while I was afraid to even touch it.

The problem with the program was that each part of the program had access to the variables from
the other parts. A change of a variable in one part would mess up things in the others. One solu-
tion to this type of problem is object-oriented programming. One of its chief benefits is encapsulation,
where you divide your program into pieces and each piece internally operates independently of
the others. The pieces interact with each other, but they don’t need to know exactly how each one
accomplishes its tasks. This requires some planning and set-up time before you start your program,
and so it is not always appropriate for short programs, like many of the ones that we have written
so far.

We will just cover the basics of object-oriented programming here. Object-oriented programming
is used extensively in software design and I would recommend picking up another book on pro-
gramming or software design to learn more about designing programs in an object-oriented way.

14.1 Python is objected-oriented

Python is an object-oriented programming language, and we have in fact been using many object-
oriented concepts already. The key notion is that of an object. An object consists of two things:
data and functions (called methods) that work with that data. As an example, strings in Python are
objects. The data of the string object is the actual characters that make up that string. The methods
are things like lower, replace, and split. In Python, everything is an object. That includes not
only strings and lists, but also integers, floats, and even functions themselves.

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14.2 Creating your own classes

A class is a template for objects. It contains the code for all the object’s methods.

A simple example Here is a simple example to demonstrate what a class looks like. It does not
do anything interesting.

class Example:
def __init__(self, a, b):
self.a = a
self.b = b

def add(self):
return self.a + self.b

e = Example(8, 6)
print(e.add())

• To create a class, we use the class statement. Class names usually start with a capital.

• Most classes will have a method called __init__. The underscores indicate that it is a special
kind of method. It is called a constructor, and it is automatically called when someone creates
a new object from your class. The constructor is usually used to set up the class’s variables. In
the above program, the constructor takes two values, a and b, and assigns the class variables
a and b to those values.

• The first argument to every method in your class is a special variable called self. Every
time your class refers to one of its variables or methods, it must precede them by self. The
purpose of self is to distinguish your class’s variables and methods from other variables
and functions in the program.

• To create a new object from the class, you call the class name along with any values that you
want to send to the constructor. You will usually want to assign it to a variable name. This is
what the line e=Example(8,6) does.

• To use the object’s methods, use the dot operator, as in e.addmod().

A more practical example Here is a class called Analyzer that performs some simple analysis
on a string. There are methods to return how many words are in the string, how many are of a
given length, and how many start with a given string.

from string import punctuation

class Analyzer:
def __init__(self, s):
for c in punctuation:
s = s.replace(c, '')
14.2. CREATING YOUR OWN CLASSES 131

s = s.lower()
self.words = s.split()

def number_of_words(self):
return len(self.words)

def starts_with(self, s):

return len([w for w in self.words if w[:len(s)]==s])

def number_with_length(self, n):

return len([w for w in self.words if len(w)==n])

s = 'This is a test of the class. '

analyzer = Analyzer(s)
print(analyzer.words)
print( 'Number of words: ', analyzer.number_of_words())
print( 'Number of words starting with "t": ', analyzer.starts_with( 't '))
print( 'Number of 2-letter words: ', analyzer.number_with_length(2))

['this', 'is', 'a', 'test', 'of', 'the', 'class']

Number of words: 7
Number of words starting with "t": 3
Number of 2-letter words: 2

A few notes about this program:

• One reason why we would wrap this code up in a class is we can then use it a variety of
different programs. It is also good just for organizing things. If all our program is doing is
just analyzing some strings, then there’s not too much of a point of writing a class, but if this
were to be a part of a larger program, then using a class provides a nice way to separate the
Analyzer code from the rest of the code. It also means that if we were to change the internals
of the Analyzer class, the rest of the program would not be affected as long as the interface,
the way the rest of the program interacts with the class, does not change. Also, the Analyzer
class can be imported as-is in other programs.

• The following line accesses a class variable:

print(analyzer.words)
You can also change class variables. This is not always a good thing. In some cases this is con-
venient, but you have to be careful with it. Indiscriminate use of class variables goes against
the idea of encapsulation and can lead to programming errors that are hard to fix. Some other
object-oriented programming languages have a notion of public and private variables, public
variables being those that anyone can access and change, and private variables being only
accessible to methods within the class. In Python all variables are public, and it is up to the
programmer to be responsible with them. There is a convention where you name those vari-
ables that you want to be private with a starting underscore, like _var1. This serves to let
others know that this variable is internal to the class and shouldn’t be touched.
132 CHAPTER 14. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

14.3 Inheritance

In object-oriented programming there is a concept called inheritance where you can create a class
that builds off of another class. When you do this, the new class gets all of the variables and
methods of the class it is inheriting from (called the base class). It can then define additional variables
and methods that are not present in the base class, and it can also override some of the methods of
the base class. That is, it can rewrite them to suit its own purposes. Here is a simple example:

class Parent:
def __init__(self, a):
self.a = a
def method1(self):
print(self.a*2)
def method2(self):
print(self.a+ '!!! ')

class Child(Parent):
def __init__(self, a, b):
self.a = a
self.b = b
def method1(self):
print(self.a*7)
def method3(self):
print(self.a + self.b)

p = Parent( 'hi ')

c = Child( 'hi ', 'bye ')

print( 'Parent method 1: ', p.method1())

print( 'Parent method 2: ', p.method2())
print()
print( 'Child method 1: ', c.method1())
print( 'Child method 2: ', c.method2())
print( 'Child method 3: ', c.method3())

Parent method 1: hihi

Parent method 2: hi!!!

Child method 1: hihihihihihihi

Child method 2: hi!!!
Child method 3: hibye

We see in the example above that the child has overridden the parent’s method1, causing it to now
repeat the string seven times. The child has inherited the parent’s method2, so it can use it without
having to define it. The child also adds some features to the parent class, namely a new variable b
and a new method, method3.

A note about syntax: when inheriting from a class, you indicate the parent class in parentheses in
the class statement.
14.4. A PLAYING-CARD EXAMPLE 133

If the child class adds some new variables, it can call the parent class’s constructor as demonstrated
below. Another use is if the child class just wants to add on to one of the parent’s methods. In the
example below, the child’s print_var method calls the parent’s print_var method and adds an
additional line.

class Parent:
def __init__(self, a):
self.a = a

def print_var(self):
print("The value of this class 's variables are:")
print(self.a)

class Child(Parent):
def __init__(self, a, b):
Parent.__init__(self, a)
self.b = b

def print_var(self):
Parent.print_var(self)
print(self.b)

Note You can also inherit from Python built-in types, like strings (str) and lists (list), as well
as any classes defined in the various modules that come with Python.

Note Your code can inherit from more than one class at a time, though this can be a little tricky.

14.4 A playing-card example

In this section we will show how to design a program with classes. We will create a simple hi-lo
card game where the user is given a card and they have to say if the next card will be higher or
lower than it. This game could easily be done without classes, but we will create classes to represent
a card and a deck of cards, and these classes can be reused in other card games.

We start with a class for a playing card. The data associated with a card consists of its value (2
through 14) and its suit. The Card class below has only one method, __str__. This is a special
method that, among other things, tells the print function how to print a Card object.

class Card:
def __init__(self, value, suit):
self.value = value
self.suit = suit

def __str__(self):
names = [ 'Jack ', 'Queen ', 'King ', 'Ace ']
if self.value <= 10:
134 CHAPTER 14. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

return '{} of {} '.format(self.value, self.suit)

else:
return '{} of {} '.format(names[self.value-11], self.suit)

Next we have a class to represent a group of cards. Its data consists of a list of Card objects. It
has a number of methods: nextCard which removes the first card from the list and returns it;
hasCard which returns True or False depending on if there are any cards left in the list; size,
which returns how many cards are in the list; and shuffle, which shuffles the list.

import random

class Card_group:
def __init__(self, cards=[]):
self.cards = cards

def nextCard(self):
return self.cards.pop(0)

def hasCard(self):
return len(self.cards)>0

def size(self):
return len(self.cards)

def shuffle(self):
random.shuffle(self.cards)

We have one more class Standard_deck, which inherits from Card_group. The idea here is that
Card_group represents an arbitrary group of cards, and Standard_deck represents a specific
group of cards, namely the standard deck of 52 cards used in most card games.

class Standard_deck(Card_group):
def __init__(self):
self.cards = []
for s in [ 'Hearts ', 'Diamonds ', 'Clubs ', 'Spades ']:
for v in range(2,15):
self.cards.append(Card(v, s))

Suppose we had just created a single class that represented a standard deck along with all the
common operations like shuffling. If we wanted to create a new class for a Pinochle game or some
other game that doesn’t use the standard deck, then we would have to copy and paste the standard
deck code and modify lots of things. By doing things more generally, like we’ve done here, each
time we want a new type of deck, we can build off of of (inherit from) what is in Card_group. For
instance, a Pinochle deck class would look like this:

class Pinochle_deck(Card_group):
def __init__(self):
self.cards = []
for s in [ 'Hearts ', 'Diamonds ', 'Clubs ', 'Spades ']*2:
14.4. A PLAYING-CARD EXAMPLE 135

for v in range(9,15):
self.cards.append(Card(v, s))

A Pinochle deck has only nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces. There are two copies of each
card in each suit.

Here is the hi-low program that uses the classes we have developed here. One way to think of what
we have done with the classes is that we have built up a miniature card programming language,
where we can think about how a card game works and not have to worry about exactly how cards
are shuffled or dealt or whatever, since that is wrapped up into the classes. For the hi-low game,
we get a new deck of cards, shuffle it, and then deal out the cards one at a time. When we run out
of cards, we get a new deck and shuffle it. A nice feature of this game is that it deals out all 52 cards
of a deck, so a player can use their memory to help them play the game.

deck = Standard_deck()
deck.shuffle()

new_card = deck.nextCard()
print( '\n ', new_card)
choice = input("Higher (h) or lower (l): ")
streak = 0

while (choice== 'h ' or choice== 'l '):

if not deck.hasCard():
deck = Standard_deck()
deck.shuffle()

old_card = new_card
new_card = deck.nextCard()

if (choice.lower()== 'h ' and new_card.value>old_card.value or\

choice.lower()== 'l ' and new_card.value<old_card.value):
streak = streak + 1
print("Right! That 's", streak, "in a row!")

elif (choice.lower()== 'h ' and new_card.value<old_card.value or\

choice.lower()== 'l ' and new_card.value>old_card.value):
streak = 0
print( 'Wrong. ')
else:
print( 'Push. ')

print( '\n ', new_card)

choice = input("Higher (h) or lower (l): ")

King of Clubs
Higher (h) or lower (l): l
Right! That's 1 in a row!

2 of Spades
136 CHAPTER 14. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

Higher (h) or lower (l): h

Right! That's 2 in a row!

14.5 A Tic-tac-toe example

In this section we create an object-oriented Tic-tac-toe game. We use a class to wrap up the logic of
the game. The class contains two variables, an integer representing the current player, and a 3 × 3
list representing the board. The board variable consists of zeros, ones, and twos. Zeros represent
an open spot, while ones and twos represent spots marked by players 1 and 2, respectively. There
are four methods:

• get_open_spots — returns a list of the places on the board that have not yet been marked
by players

• is_valid_move — takes a row and a column representing a potential move, and returns
True if move is allowed and False otherwise

• make_move — takes a row and a column representing a potential move, calls is_valid_move
to see if the move is okay, and if it is, sets the board array accordingly and changes the player

• check_for_winner — scans through the board list and returns 1 if player 1 has won, 2 if
player 2 has won, 0 if there are no moves remaining and no winner, and -1 if the game should
continue

Here is the code for the class:

class tic_tac_toe:
def __init__(self):
self.B = [[0,0,0],
[0,0,0],
[0,0,0]]
self.player = 1

def get_open_spots(self):
return [[r,c] for r in range(3) for c in range(3)
if self.B[r][c]==0]

def is_valid_move(self,r,c):
if 0<=r<=2 and 0<=c<=2 and self.board[r][c]==0:
return True
return False

def make_move(self,r,c):
if self.is_valid_move(r,c):
self.B[r][c] = self.player
self.player = (self.player+2)%2 + 1

def check_for_winner(self):
14.5. A TIC-TAC-TOE EXAMPLE 137

for c in range(3):
if self.B[0][c]==self.B[1][c]==self.B[2][c]!=0:
return self.B[0][c]
for r in range(3):
if self.B[r][0]==self.B[r][1]==self.B[r][2]!=0:
return self.B[r][0]
if self.B[0][0]==self.B[1][1]==self.B[2][2]!=0:
return self.B[0][0]
if self.B[2][0]==self.B[1][1]==self.B[0][2]!=0:
return self.B[2][0]
if self.get_open_spots()==[]:
return 0
return -1

This class consists of the logic of the game. There is nothing in the class that is specific to the user
interface. Below we have a text-based interface using print and input statements. If we decide to
use a graphical interface, we can use the Tic_tac_toe class without having to change anything
about it. Note that the get_open_spots method is not used by this program. It is useful, however,
if you want to implement a computer player. A simple computer player would call that method
and use random.choice method to choose a random element from the returned list of spots.

def print_board():
chars = [ '- ', 'X ', 'O ']
for r in range(3):
for c in range(3):
print(chars[game.B[r][c]], end= ' ')
print()

game = tic_tac_toe()
while game.check_for_winner()==-1:
print_board()
r,c = eval(input( 'Enter spot, player ' + str(game.player) + ': '))
game.make_move(r,c)

print_B()
x = game.check_for_winner()
if x==0:
print("It 's a draw.")
else:
print( 'Player ', x, 'wins! ')

Here is what the first couple of turns look like:

- - -
- - -
- - -
Enter spot, player 1: 1,1
- - -
- X -
- - -
138 CHAPTER 14. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

Enter spot, player 2: 0,2

- - O
- X -
- - -
Enter spot, player 1:

14.6 Further topics

• Special methods — We have seen two special methods already, the constructor __init__
and the method __str__ which determines what your objects look like when printed. There
are many others. For instance, there is __add__ that allows your object to use the + operator.
There are special methods for all the Python operators. There is also a method called __len__
which allows your object to work with the built in len function. There is even a special
method, __getitem__ that lets your program work with list and string brackets [].

• Copying objects — If you want to make a copy of an object x, it is not enough to do the
following:
x_copy = x
The reason is discussed in Section 19.1. Instead, do the following:
from copy import copy
x_copy = copy(x)

• Keeping your code in multiple files — If you want to reuse a class in several programs, you
do not have to copy and paste the code into each. You can save it in a file and use an import
statement to import it into your programs. The file will need to be somewhere your program
can find it, like in the same directory.
from analyzer import Analyzer

14.7 Exercises
1. Write a class called Investment with fields called principal and interest. The construc-
tor should set the values of those fields. There should be a method called value_after that
returns the value of the investment after n years. The formula for this is p(1 + i)n , where p is
the principal, and i is the interest rate. It should also use the special method __str__ so that
printing the object will result in something like below:

Principal - $1000.00, Interest rate - 5.12%

2. Write a class called Product. The class should have fields called name, amount, and price,
holding the product’s name, the number of items of that product in stock, and the regular
price of the product. There should be a method get_price that receives the number of
items to be bought and returns a the cost of buying that many items, where the regular price
14.7. EXERCISES 139

is charged for orders of less than 10 items, a 10% discount is applied for orders of between
10 and 99 items, and a 20% discount is applied for orders of 100 or more items. There should
also be a method called make_purchase that receives the number of items to be bought and
decreases amount by that much.

3. Write a class called Password_manager. The class should have a list called old_passwords
that holds all of the user’s past passwords. The last item of the list is the user’s current pass-
word. There should be a method called get_password that returns the current password
and a method called set_password that sets the user’s password. The set_password
method should only change the password if the attempted password is different from all
the user’s past passwords. Finally, create a method called is_correct that receives a string
and returns a boolean True or False depending on whether the string is equal to the current
password or not.

4. Write a class called Time whose only field is a time in seconds. It should have a method called
convert_to_minutes that returns a string of minutes and seconds formatted as in the fol-
lowing example: if seconds is 230, the method should return '5:50'. It should also have
a method called convert_to_hours that returns a string of hours, minutes, and seconds
formatted analogously to the previous method.

5. Write a class called Wordplay. It should have a field that holds a list of words. The user
of the class should pass the list of words they want to use to the class. There should be the
following methods:

• words_with_length(length) — returns a list of all the words of length length

• starts_with(s) — returns a list of all the words that start with s
• ends_with(s) — returns a list of all the words that end with s
• palindromes() — returns a list of all the palindromes in the list
• only(L) — returns a list of the words that contain only those letters in L
• avoids(L) — returns a list of the words that contain none of the letters in L

6. Write a class called Converter. The user will pass a length and a unit when declaring an
object from the class—for example, c = Converter(9,'inches'). The possible units are
inches, feet, yards, miles, kilometers, meters, centimeters, and millimeters. For each of these
units there should be a method that returns the length converted into those units. For exam-
ple, using the Converter object created above, the user could call c.feet() and should get
0.75 as the result.

7. Use the Standard_deck class of this section to create a simplified version of the game War.
In this game, there are two players. Each starts with half of a deck. The players each deal
the top card from their decks and whoever has the higher card wins the other player’s cards
and adds them to the bottom of his deck. If there is a tie, the two cards are eliminated from
play (this differs from the actual game, but is simpler to program). The game ends when one
player runs out of cards.
140 CHAPTER 14. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

8. Write a class that inherits from the Card_group class of this chapter. The class should rep-
resent a deck of cards that contains only hearts and spaces, with only the cards 2 through 10
in each suit. Add a method to the class called next2 that returns the top two cards from the
deck.

9. Write a class called Rock_paper_scissors that implements the logic of the game Rock-
paper-scissors. For this game the user plays against the computer for a certain number of
rounds. Your class should have fields for the how many rounds there will be, the current
round number, and the number of wins each player has. There should be methods for getting
the computer’s choice, finding the winner of a round, and checking to see if someone has one
the (entire) game. You may want more methods.

10. (a) Write a class called Connect4 that implements the logic of a Connect4 game. Use the
Tic_tac_toe class from this chapter as a starting point.
(b) Use the Connect4 class to create a simple text-based version of the game.

11. Write a class called Poker_hand that has a field that is a list of Card objects. There should be
the following self-explanatory methods:

has_royal_flush, has_straight_flush, has_four_of_a_kind,

has_full_house, has_flush, has_straight,
has_three_of_a_kind, has_two_pair, has_pair

There should also be a method called best that returns a string indicating what the best hand
is that can be made from those cards.