Python Class

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn about Python classes and objects and how to define a new class.

Objects

An object is a container that contains data and functionality.

The data represents the object at a particular moment in time. Therefore, the data of an object is called the state. Python uses attributes to model the state of an object.

The functionality represents the behaviors of an object. Python uses functions to model the behaviors. When a function is associated with an object, it becomes a method of the object.

In other words, an object is a container that contains the state and methods.

Before creating objects, you define a class first. And from the class, you can create one or more objects. The objects of a class are also called instances of a class.

Define a class

To define a class in Python, you use the class keyword followed by the class name and a colon. The following example defines a Person class:

class Person:
    passCode language: Python (python)

By convention, you use capitalized names for classes in Python. If the class name contains multiple words, you use the CamelCase format, for example SalesEmployee.

Since the Person class is incomplete; you need to use the pass statement to indicate that you’ll add more code to it later.

To create an instance of a class, you use the class name with parentheses like this:

person = Person()Code language: Python (python)

When printing out the person object, you’ll see its name and memory address:

class Person:
    pass


print(person)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

<__main__.Person object at 0x000001C46D1C47F0>
Code language: Python (python)

To get an identity of an object, you use the id() function. For example:

print(id(person))Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

1943155787760

The id of an object is unique. In CPython, the id() returns the memory address of an object. The hex() function converts the integer returned by the id() function to a lowercase hexadecimal string prefixed with 0x:

print(hex(id(person)))Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

0x1c46d1c47f0

The person object is an instance of the Person class. The isinstance() function returns True if an object is an instance of a class:

print(isinstance(person, Person))  # True
Code language: PHP (php)

A class is also an object in Python

Everything in Python is an object, including classes.

When you define the Person class, Python creates an object with the name Person. The Person object has attributes. For example, you can find its name using the __name__ attribute:

print(Person.__name__)Code language: CSS (css)

Output:

Person

The Person object has the type of type:

print(type(Person))Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

<class 'type'>Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

The Person class also has a behavior. For example, it can create a new instance:

person = Person()

Summary

• An object is container that contains state and behavior.
• A class is a blueprint for creating objects.
• In Python, a class is also an object, which is an instance of the type.