Classes

Classes
	Chapter 11. Object-Oriented Programming

The simplest class possible is shown in the following example.

Creating a Class

Example 11.1. Creating a Class

				
#!/usr/bin/python
# Filename: simplestclass.py

class Person:
	pass # An empty block

p = Person()
print p

Output

				
$ python simplestclass.py
<__main__.Person instance at 0xf6fcb18c>

How It Works

We create a new class using the class statement followed by the name of the class. This follows an indented block of statements which form the body of the class. In this case, we have an empty block which is indicated using the pass statement.

Next, we create an object/instance of this class using the name of the class followed by a pair of parentheses. (We will learn more about instantiation in the next section). For our verification, we confirm the type of the variable by simply printing it. It tells us that we have an instance of the Person class in the __main__ module.

Notice that the address of the computer memory where your object is stored is also printed. The address will have a different value on your computer since Python can store the object wherever it finds space.


The self		object Methods