Classes and Objects

===================

In the previous sections we learnt about functions which provide certain level

of abstraction to our code by holding the code which performs one or more

specific functionalities. We were able to use this function as many times as we

wanted. In addition to functions, Python also higher level of abstractions

through *Classes* and *Objects*. *Objects* can be loosely defined as a

collection of a set of data items and a set of methods. The data items can be

any valid Python variable or any Python object. Functions enclosed within a class

are called as *methods*. If you are thinking if methods are functions why is there

a distinction between the two? The answer to this will be given as we walk through

the concepts of *Classes* and *Objects*. *Classes* contain the definition for the

*Objects*. *Objects* are instances of *Classes*.

A class is defined using the keyword **class** followed by the class name, in

turn followed by a semicolon. The statements that a *Class* encloses are written

in a new block, i.e on the next indentation level::

  class Employee:

    def setName(self, name):

      self.name = name

    def getName(self):

      return self.name

In the above example, we defined a class with the name Employee. We also defined

two methods, setName and getName for this class. It is important to note the

differences between the normal Python functions and class methods defined above.

Each method of the class must take the same instance of the class(object) from

which it was called as the first argument. It is conventionally given the name,

*self*. Note that *self* is only a convention. You can use any other name, but

the first argument to the method will always be the same object of the class

from which the method was called. The data memebers that belong to the class are

called as *class attributes*. *Class attributes* are preceded by the object of

the class and a dot. In the above example, *name* is a class attribute since it

is preceded by the *self* object. *Class attributes* can be accessed from

anywhere within the class. 

We can create objects of a class outside the class definition by using the same

syntax we use to call a function with no parameters. We can assign this object

to a variable::

  emp = Employee()

In the above example, we create an object named *emp* of the class *Employee*.

All the attributes and methods of the class can be accessed by the object of the

class using the standard notation *object.attribute* or *object.method()*.

Although the first parameter of a class method is the self object, it must not

be passed as an argument when calling the method. The *self* object is implicitly

passed to the method by the Python interpreter. All other arguments passing rules

like default arguments, keyword arguments, argument packing and unpacking follow

the same rules as those for ordinary Python functions::

  >>> emp.setName('John')

  >>> name = emp.getName()

  >>> print name

  John

  >>> print emp.name

  John

If we at all try to access a class attribute before assigning a value to it, i.e

before creating it, Python raises the same error as it would raise for the

accessing undefined variable::

  >>> emp = Employee()

  >>> emp.name

  Traceback (most recent call last):

    File "class.py", line 10, in <module>

      print e.name

  AttributeError: Employee instance has no attribute 'name'