Instance members
Instance variables in python are such that when defined in the parent class of the object are instantiated and separately maintained for each and every object instance of the class. These are usually called using the self. Keyword. The self keyword is used to represent an instance of the class
Instance variables can be defined as following using self. with the variable
Python3
# for example we define the following # class with a instance variable class Node: def __init__(self): # this is a instance variable self.msg = "This is stored in an instance variable." # instance variables can be used as following print(Node().msg) |
Output:
This is stored in an instance variable.
Note: the instance variables can only be called once the class is instantiated into an object.
In order for a method to be an instance method it needs to be passed the self attribute. Instance methods can be defined as follows:
Python3
# for example we define the following # class with a instance variable class Node: def __init__(self): # this is a instance variable self.msg = "This is stored in an instance variable." # following is an instance method def func(self): print('This was printed by an instance method.') return self.msg # instance methods can be used as following print(Node().func()) |
Output:
This was printed by an instance method. This is stored in an instance variable.
Now that we all understand the basics of instance members in Python, Let us now understand how the class members in python work and how they may be implemented.
Python Class Members
Python, similarly to other object-oriented allows the user to write short and beautiful code by enabling the developer to define classes to create objects.
The developer can define the prototype of an object class based on two types of members:
- Instance members
- Class members
In the real world, these may look similar in many ways but in actuality, these are a lot different in terms of their use cases.
To understand Class members, let us recall how the instance members work: