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I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
all variables are objects

Python is a truly object oriented language, where every variable is an object, and every piece of code is a method. That means that even a named block of code is an object, held in a named variable and that even an operator like "+" is really just a shorthand for a method call - __add__ in this case.

The result is a very efficient language which, once you learn how to use it, has a flexibility beyond your dreams.

Here's a sample piece of code in which we're defining a class of clothing ... adding clothes together adds the weight of each piece of clothing, and combines the colours as a string adding in the word "and" in between - a typical use of an overloaded operator in Python.

"""Demonstration that in Python ...
all operations are methods
all variables (including code) are objects
all blocks are defined using insets.
"""

class clothing:
  """ A simple class with a constructor and two
  property accessors. We also redefine addition
  and the equality test for clothing """

  def __init__(self,colour,weight):
    self.colour=colour
    self.weight=weight

  def getcolour(self):
    return self.colour

  def getweight(self):
   return self.weight

  def __add__(self,second):
    result = clothing(self.colour,self.weight)
    result.weight += second.weight
    result.colour += " and " + second.colour
    return result

  def __eq__(first,second):
    if first.weight == second.weight and \
        first.colour == second.colour: return 1
    return 0

# Test code - to be run only if this file is
# run standalone

if __name__ == "__main__":
  wearing = []
  wearing.append(clothing("blue",1.0))
  wearing.append(clothing("brown",1.25))
  # Following lines both run the __add__ method
  outfit = wearing[0] + wearing[1]
  wearing.append(outfit)
  wearing.append(outfit.__add__(wearing[1]))
  # Following lines show that methods are objects
  print wearing.append
  print wearing[0].getcolour
  for haveon in wearing:
    print "I am wearing something coloured",haveon.getcolour(),
    print "And weighing",haveon.getweight(),"kgs"

Here's what you'll see when you run that code

[localhost:~/ipy] graham% python address
<built-in method append of list object at 0x3c38a0>
<bound method clothing.getcolour of <__main__.clothing instance at 0x40a580>>
I am wearing something coloured blue And weighing 1.0 kgs
I am wearing something coloured brown And weighing 1.25 kgs
I am wearing something coloured blue and brown And weighing 2.25 kgs
I am wearing something coloured blue and brown and brown And weighing 3.5 kgs
[localhost:~/ipy] graham%


See also Object Orientation in Python

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At Well House Consultants, we provide training courses on subjects such as Ruby, Lua, Perl, Python, Linux, C, C++, Tcl/Tk, Tomcat, PHP and MySQL. We're asked (and answer) many questions, and answers to those which are of general interest are published in this area of our site.

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