Python is an Object Oriented Programming Language (OOPS). It means, everything in python is an object or instance of some class.
In simple words, Python class is a blueprint of an object. Or, it is a combination of initialising variables, defining methods, static methods, class methods etc.
In this article, we will show you, how to create a class in Python, creating an Object or instance of a class, Modify Object, delete an object or instance with examples.
Creating an Empty Class in Python
If you want to create a Python class that do nothing. Or if you want to create an empty class then you have to use pass keyword within that class.
# Python Class example class Employee: pass
The following example shows you, how to declare a variable and how to create a method inside a class. There are different kinds of methods, which we discuss in the later section. For now, understand the syntax
class Employee: Variable = Value def function_name(self): Statements …………..
Python class Object
In Python, class objects supports both the attribute reference and instantiation. You can use either of them to call the class attributes. This is an example for both the instantiation, and the attribute reference.
- The attribute reference uses ClassName.Variable_name or ClassName.function_name.
- For the instantiation, you have to create an instance of that class (or copy of that class). To create an instance use instance_name = class_Name(), to call the variable instance_name.variable_name and to call the method instance_name.method_name()
Here, emp = Employee() is creating an instantiation, and emp.company inside print means calling class variable. Next, Employee.company is an example of attribute reference
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
emp = Employee()
print(emp.company)
print("-------------")
print(Employee.company)OUTPUT
In this example, we declared a variable company, and defined a function with self parameter that prints a welcome message. Next, we created an object emp1 for Employee class. By using this object emp1, we are accessing the company variable, and func_message().
Within the last two statements, we used the attribute reference to access the variable value and the function result. By using attribute reference, you can print the variable value. However, Employee.func_message returns the function object but not the actual function result. So, you should remember this concept while working with attribute references in python class.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp = Employee()
print(emp.company)
emp.func_message()
print("-------------")
print(Employee.company)
print(Employee.func_message)OUTPUT
Python __init() function
By default, all the Python classes in real-time have a __init__() function. Use this function to assign values to properties of an object. When you create an object of a class, it will automatically calls the __init__() function. You don’t have to call it.
In this example, we used simple print statement inside a __init__() function. Next, we created an object of Employee class. As you can see, it is directly printing the message
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self):
print('Hello World')
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee() # Created an Instance
print(emp1.company)
emp1.func_message()OUTPUT
In this example, we will use the __init__() function to add values to the properties in a class. Here, we used name, age, gender in the function, and assigned those values in the next line. It means, when you create an object of employee class, you have to provide the name, age and gender (while creating object itself).
For instance, if you create an object emp1 = Employee() without the argument values then following error will be raised. TypeError: __init__() missing 3 required positional arguments: ‘name’, ‘age’, and ‘gender’
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('Mike', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.company)
emp1.func_message()
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)OUTPUT
From the above Python class example, it might confuse you to declare the argument because we used the same names: name, age, gender all the time. However, it is not mandatory to use like that but it is a best practice to do so.
In this example, we are using n, a, gen as __init__ arguments and name, age, gender as self initialisation. Hopefully, this might clear your confusion.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, n, a, gen):
self.name = n
self.age = a
self.gender = gen
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('Johnson', 29, 'Male')
print(emp1.company)
emp1.func_message()
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)OUTPUT
Multiple class Objects in Python
When you create an object or instance of a class then it hold the copy of that class not the actual class. It means, you can create n number of objects from a single class, and each instance might have different property values or method values.
In this Python class example ,we created an Employee class. Next, we created two objects emp1 and emp2 from that employee class. As you can see, each instance have different names, age and gender. Next, we are printing those values as an output and you can see they work!.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('Mike', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.company)
emp1.func_message()
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)
print()
emp2 = Employee('Tracy', 27, 'Female')
print(emp2.company)
emp2.func_message()
print(emp2.name)
print(emp2.age)
print(emp2.gender)OUTPUT
This example is same as above. However, this time we modified the func_message(self) function definition. It accepts the name (instance variable) and attaches to the message that we print as an output. Let me call this message from two instance emp1 and emp2.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('Mike', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.company)
print(emp1.name) # Mike
print(emp1.age) #25
print(emp1.gender)
emp1.func_message()
print()
emp2 = Employee('Tracy', 27, 'Female')
print(emp2.company)
print(emp2.name) #Tracy
print(emp2.age) # 27
print(emp2.gender)
emp2.func_message()OUTPUT
As you can see emp1.func_message() replaced the self.name as Mike and emp2.func_message() replaced self.name with Tracy.
Modifying the Python Class Variable
In this example, we will show you, how to modify the class variable using the class Objects. First, we declared a company variable, and a function that prints a welcome message. Next, we created three instance emp1, emp2 and emp3 of the Employee class.
Next, we used Object_name.Variabel_name = New_Name to change the name of the company for emp2 and emp3 objects. This will change the company names for both these instances. Next, we are printing the company variable from all these three instances.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def func_message(self):
print('Welcome to Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee()
emp2 = Employee()
emp3 = Employee()
emp2.company = 'Python'
emp3.company = 'Apple'
emp1.func_message()
print(emp1.company)
print(emp2.company)
print(emp3.company)
print(emp1.company)OUTPUT
Modify Python Object Properties
This example shows, how to modify the Python Object Properties. First, we created an instance emp1 of the Employee class with required fields. Next, we are printing the available values as an output.
Here, emp1.name = ‘John’ (object_name.property_name = New_Value) statement will update the existing emp1 name (Mike) to John. Let me check the same by printing emp1 name one more time.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('Mike', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)
emp1.func_message()
emp1.name = 'John'
print(emp1.name)
emp1.func_message()OUTPUT
From the below screenshot, you see that the last two statements are printing the new name John
Delete Python Object Properties
In this Python class object example, we will show you, how to delete an object property. For this, we are using the same class as above.
Here, emp1 = Employee(‘John’, 25, ‘Male’) creates an instance emp1 for Employee class. Next, we are printing the name, age, gender, and the message from func_message() method.
Next, we used del keyword to delete emp1 object property called name (del instance_name.property_name). Within the last statement, we again printed the name property of emp1 object that we deleted. As you can see, it displays an error ‘Employee’ object has no attribute ‘name’. It means, we successfully deleted the object property. Similarly, you can delete age by del emp1.age and gender by del emp1.gender.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('John', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)
emp1.func_message()
del emp1.name
print(emp1.name)OUTPUT
Remember, deleting an instance property doesn’t effect the other instance property. This Python class example is same as above. However, this time we created two Instances emp1 and emp2 for the Employee class. Next, we deleted the name property of emp1 object using del keyword. Next, we are printing the name of emp2 instance and emp1 instance.
As you can see from the below screenshot, emp2.name is returning the name as Nancy but, emp1.name is throwing error because we deleted it.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('John', 25, 'Male')
emp2 = Employee('Nancy', 27, 'Female')
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)
emp1.func_message()
del emp1.name
print(emp2.name)
print(emp1.name)OUTPUT
Delete Python Class Object
In this example, we are using the same class that we defined in our previous example. Here, first we create an object of Employee class, and displaying the employee name, age, gender, and the message from the func_message() method.
Next, we used del keyword to delete the class object emp1 (del Object_name). This will delete the instance emp1 that we created earlier. In the last statement, we called func_message() method with emp1 object to check whether the object still exist or not. You can see from the screenshot, it was throwing an error name ’emp1′ is not defined. It means, we deleted the emp1 object by del statement.
class Employee:
company = 'Tutorial Gateway'
def __init__(self, name, age, gender):
self.name = name
self.age = age
self.gender = gender
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
emp1 = Employee('John', 25, 'Male')
print(emp1.name)
print(emp1.age)
print(emp1.gender)
emp1.func_message()
del emp1
emp1.func_message()OUTPUT
Options for Creating Python class
In this example, we will show you the different ways to create a class in python. As you can see from the below code, either you can use class_name, or class_name() or class_name(object).
The last option with object is the latest one to create a class in python. If you look close to object creation, we used the same approach to create the object for all those three classes.
class Employee:
def __init__(self):
print('Msg from Employee : Welcome to Tutorial Gateway')
class Student():
def __init__(self):
print('Msg from Student: Hello World!')
class Person(object):
def __init__(self):
print('Msg from Person: Welcome to Python Programming')
emp = Employee()
std = Student()
per = Person()OUTPUT
Python class self parameter
The Python self parameter is noting but a reference to the current instance of a class. We have to use this self parameter as the first parameter, which helps us to access the variables belongs to the class.
If you don’t like the the keyword self then you can use any word as self parameter. However, it has to be the first parameter. In this Python class example, we used suresh instead of self in the third method function_msg
class Employee:
def __init__(self, name, age):
self.name = name
self.age = age
def func_message(self):
print(self.name + ' is learning Python Programming')
def func_msg(suresh):
print('Tutorial Gateway Welcome ' + suresh.name)
emp1 = Employee('John', 25)
emp1.func_message()
emp1.func_msg()OUTPUT
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