Digging Deep - Python

Now that you've got the concepts straight, let's take a look at the nitty-gritty of a class definition.

class veryBigSnake:
# method and property definitions

Every class definition begins with the keyword "class", followed by a class name. You can give your class any name that strikes your fancy, so long as it doesn't collide with a reserved word. All class variables and functions are indented within this block, and are written as you would normally code them.

In order to create a new instance of a class, you need to simply create a new variable referencing the class.

>>> alpha = veryBigSnake()
>>>

In English, the above would mean "create a new object of class veryBigSnake and assign it to the variable 'alpha'".

You can now access all the methods and properties of the class via this variable.

>>> # accessing a method
>>> alpha.set_snake_name("Peter Python")
>>>
>>> # accessing a property
>>> alpha.name
>>>

Again, in English,

>>> alpha.set_snake_name("Peter Python")
>>>

would mean

"execute the method set_snake_name() with parameter 'Peter Python' of this specific instance of the class veryBigSnake".

>>> More Python Articles          >>> More By icarus, (c) Melonfire

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