Python - Constructors

Pythonconstructoris an instance method in a class, that is automatically called whenever a new object of the class is created. The constructor’s role is to assign value to instance variables as soon as the object is declared.

Python uses a special method called__init__()to initialize the instance variables for the object, as soon as it is declared.

Creating a constructor in Python

The__init__()method acts as a constructor. It needs a mandatory argument namedself, which is the reference to the object.

May use this content In object-oriented programming, an object of a class is characterized by one or more instance variables or attributes, whose values are unique to each object. For example, if the Employee class has an instance attribute as name. Each of its objects e1 and e2 may have different value for the name variable.

def __init__(self, parameters):
#initialize instance variables

The__init__()method as well as any instance method in a class has a mandatory parameter,self. However, you can give any name to the first parameter, not necessarily self.

Types of Constructor in Python

Python has two types of constructor −

• Default Constructor
• Parameterized Constructor

Default Constructor in Python

The Python constructor which does not accept any parameter other thanselfis called as default constructor.

Example

Let us define theconstructorin the Employee class to initialize name and age as instance variables. We can then access these attributes through its object.

class Employee:
   'Common base class for all employees'
   def __init__(self):
      self.name = "Bhavana"
      self.age = 24

e1 = Employee()
print ("Name: {}".format(e1.name))
print ("age: {}".format(e1.age))

It will produce the followingoutput−

Name: Bhavana
age: 24

For the above Employee class, each object we declare will have same value for its instance variables name and age. To declare objects with varying attributes instead of the default, define arguments for the init() method.

Parameterized Constructor

If a constructor is defined with multiple parameters along withselfis called as parameterized constructor.

Example

In this example, the init() constructor has two formal arguments. We declare Employee objects with different values −

class Employee:
   'Common base class for all employees'
   def __init__(self, name, age):
      self.name = name
      self.age = age

e1 = Employee("Bhavana", 24)
e2 = Employee("Bharat", 25)

print ("Name: {}".format(e1.name))
print ("age: {}".format(e1.age))
print ("Name: {}".format(e2.name))
print ("age: {}".format(e2.age))

It will produce the followingoutput−

Name: Bhavana
age: 24
Name: Bharat
age: 25

You can also assign default values to the formal arguments in the constructor so that the object can be instantiated with or without passing parameters.

class Employee:
   'Common base class for all employees'
   def __init__(self, name="Bhavana", age=24):
      self.name = name
      self.age = age

e1 = Employee()
e2 = Employee("Bharat", 25)

print ("Name: {}".format(e1.name))
print ("age: {}".format(e1.age))
print ("Name: {}".format(e2.name))
print ("age: {}".format(e2.age))

It will produce the followingoutput−

Name: Bhavana
age: 24
Name: Bharat
age: 25

Python - Instance Methods

In addition to the init() constructor, there may be one or more instance methods defined in a class. A method with self as one of the formal arguments is called instance method, as it is called by a specific object.

Example

In the following example a displayEmployee() method has been defined as an instance method. It returns the name and age attributes of the Employee object that calls the method.

class Employee:
   def __init__(self, name="Bhavana", age=24):
      self.name = name
      self.age = age
   def displayEmployee(self):
      print ("Name : ", self.name, ", age: ", self.age)

e1 = Employee()
e2 = Employee("Bharat", 25)

e1.displayEmployee()
e2.displayEmployee()

It will produce the followingoutput−

Name : Bhavana , age: 24
Name : Bharat , age: 25

You can add, remove, or modify attributes of classes and objects at any time −

# Add a 'salary' attribute
emp1.salary = 7000 
# Modify 'name' attribute
emp1.name = 'xyz' 
# Delete 'salary' attribute
del emp1.salary

Instead of using the normal statements to access attributes, you can use the following functions −

• Thegetattr(obj, name[, default])− to access the attribute of object.
• Thehasattr(obj,name)− to check if an attribute exists or not.
• Thesetattr(obj,name,value)− to set an attribute. If attribute does not exist, then it would be created.
• Thedelattr(obj, name)− to delete an attribute.

# Returns true if 'salary' attribute exists
print (hasattr(e1, 'salary')) 
# Returns value of 'name' attribute
print (getattr(e1, 'name')) 
# Set attribute 'salary' at 8
setattr(e1, 'salary', 7000) 
# Delete attribute 'age'
delattr(e1, 'age')

It will produce the followingoutput−

False
Bhavana

Python Multiple Constructors

As mentioned earlier, we define the init() method to create a constructor. However, unlike other programming languages like C++ and Java, Python does not allow multiple constructors.

If you try to create multiple constructors, Python will not throw an error, but it will only consider the last init() method in your class. Its previous definition will be overridden by the last one.

But, there is a way to achieve similar functionality in Python. We can overload constructors based on the type or number of arguments passed to the init() method. This will allow a single constructor method to handle various initialization scenarios based on the arguments provided.

Example

The following example shows how to achieve functionality similar to multiple constructors.

class Student:
   def __init__(self, *args):
      if len(args) == 1:
         self.name = args[0]
        
      elif len(args) == 2:
         self.name = args[0]
         self.age = args[1]
        
      elif len(args) == 3:
         self.name = args[0]
         self.age = args[1]
         self.gender = args[2]
            
st1 = Student("Shrey")
print("Name:", st1.name)
st2 = Student("Ram", 25)
print(f"Name: {st2.name} and Age: {st2.age}")
st3 = Student("Shyam", 26, "M")
print(f"Name: {st3.name}, Age: {st3.age} and Gender: {st3.gender}")

When we run the above code, it will produce the followingoutput−

Name: Shrey
Name: Ram and Age: 25
Name: Shyam, Age: 26 and Gender: M