I'm having a problem understanding how class / instance variables work in Python. I don't understand why when I try this code the list variable seems to be a class variable
class testClass():
list = []
def __init__(self):
self.list.append('thing')
p = testClass()
print p.list
f = testClass()
print f.list
Output:
['thing']
['thing', 'thing']
and when I do this it seems to be an instance variable
class testClass():
def __init__(self):
self.list = []
self.list.append('thing')
p = testClass()
print p.list
f = testClass()
print f.list
Output:
['thing']
['thing']
This is because of the way Python resolves names with the .
. When you write self.list
the Python runtime tries to resolve the list
name first by looking for it in the instance object, and if it is not found there, then in the class instance.
Let's look into it step by step
self.list.append(1)
list
name into the object self
?
list
name into the class instance of object self
?
But when you bind a name things are different:
self.list = []
list
name into the object self
?
So, that is always an instance variable.
Your first example creates a list
into the class instance, as this is the active scope at the time (no self
anywhere). But your second example creates a list
explicitly in the scope of self
.
More interesting would be the example:
class testClass():
list = ['foo']
def __init__(self):
self.list = []
self.list.append('thing')
x = testClass()
print x.list
print testClass.list
del x.list
print x.list
That will print:
['thing']
['foo']
['foo']
The moment you delete the instance name the class name is visible through the self
reference.