constructor overloading like Java ?

[Gerhard Häring]

Servus Karl :-)

Karl Scalet wrote:
> Hello Markus,
> 
> Markus Jais wrote:
>>[...]      public MyClass(int a)
>>           public MyClass(MyObject my)
> [...]
> 
> you cannot have more than one contructor, but you could handle
> this case inside _the_ constuctor:
> 
> class MyClass:
>     def __init__(arg):
>         if type(arg) == type(0):
>             self.a = arg
>         elif isinstance(arg, MyObject):
>             self.my = arg
> 
> in the latter case, arg is a MyObject or a
> subclass of it (as with Java)

<nitpick>
For checking against ints, I'd recommend you use either:

#v+
if type(arg) is int

or

if isinstance(arg, int)
#v-

Using Python 2.2 or later, of course.

The type(0) (or types.IntType) is only necessary for backwards 
compatiblity with older Python versions.

Anyway, types (and any singletons) should be compared using the 'is' 
operator, because it's clearer and faster.

-- Gerhard