Exercise 44 question - __init__ with Classes & Objects

Python
#1

–Sorry if this is a double-post. I didn’t see it posted as a new topic.–

Hi,
Still working through this terrific book! Very helpful stuff.

Here’s a question I hope doesn’t put a Dunce Cap on my head. I’m struggling with it and have Googled various discussions on the web but am still a bit confused.

I’m confused why some Classes are coded without an “init” method and why others have an “init” method. (The underscores aren’t showing up in the post here, but I am typing them)

The code in Exercise 44 is one example. Parent and Child Classes are defined and dad and son objects are created but init is not used anywhere.

When I first read about Classes and Objects, I thought init was essential to creating objects from classes, but Exercise 44 code, and other code used in the book, works without the init.

Thanks in advance for any takers on my basic question.

-Mark (Destined to be a Python Expert, but right now, candidly, barely a beginner).

#2

@Mark_H

This is how I understand the init method:

It is just a method where you assign properties to instances of classes

for example:

class Person(object):
    def __init__(self, name, age, political_orientation):
        self.name = name
        self.age = name
        self.political_orientation = political_orientation
   

doug = Person("Doug", 26, "Conservative") 
# doug is a Person, his name is "Doug", he is 26 years old, he is a Conservative

print(doug.name) # prints "Doug"
print(doug.age) # prints 26
print(doug.political_orientation) # prints "Conservative"

If you don’t want a class to have any properties, you don’t need the: __init__
A class can just have functionality. So in the case of the Parent class from ex44:

class Parent(object):
   def implicit(self):
      print("PARENT implicit()")
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#3

Thanks Zach. What you say seems very clear.

It’s funny, the ideas of Classes and Objects make perfect sense to me (my syntax confusion aside).

I still remember my Plato from college days philosophy class – his theory of forms. Same wine, new bottle!

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