Python Methods

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn about Python methods and the differences between functions and methods.

Introduction to the Python methods

By definition, a method is a function that is bound to an instance of a class. This tutorial helps you understand how it works under the hood.

The following defines a Request class that contains a function send():

class Request:
    def send():
        print('Sent')Code language: Python (python)

And you can call the send() function via the Request class like this:

Request.send() # SentCode language: Python (python)

The send() is a function object, which is an instance of the function class as shown in the following output:

print(Request.send)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

<function Request.send at 0x00000276F9E00310>Code language: Python (python)

The type of the send is function:

print(type(Request.send))Code language: Python (python)

Output:

<class 'function'>Code language: Python (python)

The following creates a new instance of the Request class:

http_request = Request()Code language: Python (python)

If you display the http_request.send, it’ll return a bound method object:

print(http_request.send)Code language: Python (python)

Output:

<bound method Request.send of <__main__.Request object at 0x00000104B6C3D580>>Code language: Python (python)

So the http_request.send is not a function like Request.send. The following checks if the Request.send is the same object as http_request.send. It’ll returns False as expected:

print(type(Request.send) is type(http_request.send))Code language: Python (python)

The reason is that the type of the Request.send is function while the type of the http_request.send is method, as shown below:

print(type(http_request.send))  # <class 'method'>
print(type(Request.send))  # <class 'function'>Code language: Python (python)

So when you define a function inside a class, it’s purely a function. However, when you access that function via an object, the function becomes a method.

Therefore, a method is a function that is bound to an instance of a class.

If you call the send() function via the http_request object, you’ll get a TypeError as follows:

http_request.send()Code language: Python (python)

Error:

TypeError: send() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was givenCode language: Python (python)

Because the http_request.send is a method that is bound to the http_request object, Python always implicitly passes the object to the method as the first argument.

The following redefines the Request class where the send function accepts a list of arguments:

class Request:
    def send(*args):
        print('Sent', args)Code language: Python (python)

The following calls the send function from the Request class:

Request.send()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

Sent ()Code language: Python (python)

The send() function doesn’t receive any arguments.

However, if you call the send() function from an instance of the Request class, the args is not empty:

http_request.send()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

Sent (<__main__.Request object at 0x000001374AF4D580>,)Code language: Python (python)

In this case, the send() method receives an object which is the http_request, which is the object that it is bound to.

The following illustrates that the object that calls the send() method is the one that Python implicitly passes into the method as the first argument:

print(hex(id(http_request)))
http_request.send()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

0x1ee3a74d580
Sent (<__main__.Request object at 0x000001EE3A74D580>,)Code language: Python (python)

The http_request object is the same as the one Python passes to the send() method as the first argument because they have the same memory address. In other words, you can access the instance of the class as the first argument inside the send() method:

The following method call:

http_request.send()Code language: Python (python)

is equivalent to the following function call:

Request.send(http_request)Code language: Python (python)

For this reason, a method of an object always has the object as the first argument. By convention, it is called self:

class Request:
    def send(self):
        print('Sent', self)Code language: Python (python)

If you have worked with other programming languages such as Java or C#, the self is the same as the this object.

Summary

• When you define a function inside a class, it’s purely a function. However, when you call the function via an instance of a class, the function becomes a method. Therefore, a method is a function that is bound to an instance of a class.
• A method is an instance of the method class.
• A method has the first argument (self) as the object to which it is bound.
• Python automatically passes the bound object to the method as the first argument. By convention, its name is self.