Python calling method in class

Question

I\'m punching way above my weight here, but please bear with this Python amateur. I\'m a PHP developer by trade and I\'ve hardly touched this language before.

What I

Answer 1

Let's say you have a shiny Foo class. Well you have 3 options:

1) You want to use the method (or attribute) of a class inside the definition of that class:

class Foo(object):
    attribute1 = 1                   # class attribute (those don't use 'self' in declaration)
    def __init__(self):
        self.attribute2 = 2          # instance attribute (those are accessible via first
                                     # parameter of the method, usually called 'self'
                                     # which will contain nothing but the instance itself)
    def set_attribute3(self, value): 
        self.attribute3 = value

    def sum_1and2(self):
        return self.attribute1 + self.attribute2

2) You want to use the method (or attribute) of a class outside the definition of that class

def get_legendary_attribute1():
    return Foo.attribute1

def get_legendary_attribute2():
    return Foo.attribute2

def get_legendary_attribute1_from(cls):
    return cls.attribute1

get_legendary_attribute1()           # >>> 1
get_legendary_attribute2()           # >>> AttributeError: type object 'Foo' has no attribute 'attribute2'
get_legendary_attribute1_from(Foo)   # >>> 1

3) You want to use the method (or attribute) of an instantiated class:

f = Foo()
f.attribute1                         # >>> 1
f.attribute2                         # >>> 2
f.attribute3                         # >>> AttributeError: 'Foo' object has no attribute 'attribute3'
f.set_attribute3(3)
f.attribute3                         # >>> 3

Answer 2

Could someone explain to me, how to call the move method with the variable RIGHT

>>> myMissile = MissileDevice(myBattery)  # looks like you need a battery, don't know what that is, you figure it out.
>>> myMissile.move(MissileDevice.RIGHT)

If you have programmed in any other language with classes, besides python, this sort of thing

class Foo:
    bar = "baz"

is probably unfamiliar. In python, the class is a factory for objects, but it is itself an object; and variables defined in its scope are attached to the class, not the instances returned by the class. to refer to bar, above, you can just call it Foo.bar; you can also access class attributes through instances of the class, like Foo().bar.

---

Im utterly baffled about what 'self' refers too,

>>> class Foo:
...     def quux(self):
...         print self
...         print self.bar
...     bar = 'baz'
...
>>> Foo.quux
<unbound method Foo.quux>
>>> Foo.bar
'baz'
>>> f = Foo()
>>> f.bar
'baz'
>>> f
<__main__.Foo instance at 0x0286A058>
>>> f.quux
<bound method Foo.quux of <__main__.Foo instance at 0x0286A058>>
>>> f.quux()
<__main__.Foo instance at 0x0286A058>
baz
>>>

When you acecss an attribute on a python object, the interpreter will notice, when the looked up attribute was on the class, and is a function, that it should return a "bound" method instead of the function itself. All this does is arrange for the instance to be passed as the first argument.

Answer 3

The first argument of all methods is usually called self. It refers to the instance for which the method is being called.

Let's say you have:

class A(object):
    def foo(self):
        print 'Foo'

    def bar(self, an_argument):
        print 'Bar', an_argument

Then, doing:

a = A()
a.foo() #prints 'Foo'
a.bar('Arg!') #prints 'Bar Arg!'

---

There's nothing special about this being called self, you could do the following:

class B(object):
    def foo(self):
        print 'Foo'

    def bar(this_object):
        this_object.foo()

Then, doing:

b = B()
b.bar() # prints 'Foo'

---

In your specific case:

dangerous_device = MissileDevice(some_battery)
dangerous_device.move(dangerous_device.RIGHT) 

(As suggested in comments MissileDevice.RIGHT could be more appropriate here!)

You could declare all your constants at module level though, so you could do:

dangerous_device.move(RIGHT)

This, however, is going to depend on how you want your code to be organized!