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Python-Class & Object

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 Introduction
• Python has been an object-oriented language

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since it existed. Because of this, creating and

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using classes and objects are downright easy.

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• This chapter helps you become an expert in

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using Python's object-oriented programming
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support.
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 Overview of OOP Terminology
• Class:A user-defined prototype for an object that defines a set of
attributes that characterize any object of the class. The attributes are data
members (class variables and instance variables) and methods, accessed
via dot notation.

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• Class variable: A variable that is shared by all instances of a class. Class

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variables are defined within a class but outside any of the class's methods.

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Class variables are not used as frequently as instance variables are.

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• Instance variable: A variable that is defined inside a method and belongs

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only to the current instance of a class.
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Data member: A class variable or instance variable that holds data
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associated with a class and its objects.
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• Instance: An individual object of a certain class. An object obj that belongs

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to a class Circle, for example, is an instance of the class Circle.

• Instantiation: The creation of an instance of a class.
• Method : A special kind of function that is defined in a class definition.
• Object: A unique instance of a data structure that's defined by its class. An
object comprises both data members (class variables and instance
variables) and methods.
 Overview of OOP Terminology

• Inheritance: The transfer of the characteristics of

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a class to other classes that are derived from it.

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• Function overloading: The assignment of more

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than one behavior to a particular function. The

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operation performed varies by the types of
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objects or arguments involved.
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• Operator overloading: The assignment of more

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than one function to a particular operator.

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Example

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 Creating Classes

• The class statement creates a new class definition. The name of the class
immediately follows the keyword class followed by a colon as follows −

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 Creating Instance Objects

• "This would create first object of Employee

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class"

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emp1 = Employee("Zara", 2000)

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• "This would create second object of Employee

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emp2 = Employee("Manni", 5000)

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 Accessing Attributes

• emp1.displayEmployee()

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• emp2.displayEmployee()

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• print "Total Employee %d" % Employee.empCount

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Public and private member in class

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 Destroying Objects (Garbage
Collection)
• Python deletes unneeded objects (built-in

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types or class instances) automatically to free

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the memory space.

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• The process by which Python periodically

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reclaims blocks of memory that no longer are
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in use is termed Garbage Collection.
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 Example
class Point:
def __init__( self, x=0, y=0):

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self.x = x

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self.y = y

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def __del__(self):

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class_name = self.__class__.__name__

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print class_name, "destroyed"

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pt1 = Point() er
pt2 = pt1
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pt3 = pt1
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print id(pt1), id(pt2), id(pt3) # prints the ids of the obejcts

del pt1
del pt2
del pt3
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