Style question - defining immutable class data members

[Gary Herron]

John Posner wrote:
> (My apologies if the thread has already covered this.) I believe I understand the WHAT in this situation, but I don't understand the WHY ...
>
> Given this class definition:
>
>   class Cls(object):
>       x = 345
>
> ... I observe the following, using IDLE 2.6.1:
>
>   
>>>> inst = Cls()
>>>> Cls.x is inst.x
>>>>         
> True
>
>   
>>>> Cls.x += 1
>>>> Cls.x is inst.x
>>>>         
> True
>
>   
>>>> inst.x += 1
>>>> Cls.x is inst.x
>>>>         
> False
>
> My question is ... WHY does the interpreter silently create the instance attribute at this point, causing a "surprising decoupling" from the class attribute? WHY doesn't the interpreter behave as it would with a simple, non-instance variable:
>
>   > python
>   Python 2.6.1 ...
>   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>
>   >>> x += 1
>   Traceback (most recent call last):
>     File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>   NameError: name 'x' is not defined
>
> Is there a beneficial effect of silently creating the instance attribute, which outweighs the detrimental effects: (1) inconsistency, (2) the "surprising" decoupling?
>   

I wouldn't call it "silently" because "inst.x = ..." is quite explicit 
about "x" being an attribute of "inst".  The rules for creating a 
variable are simple and very consistent.

Each of
  Cls.x = ...
  inst.x = ...
  x = ...
will create a variable (if it does not already exist) in a class, 
instance or local name space respectively. 

Retrieving a value is more complex as Python may look through several 
namespaces in succession to find a value:  (For example, inst.x will 
check the instance , then the class ...)

The problem here is that
  inst.x += 1
is really
  inst.x = inst.x+1
which according to those rules, (if inst.x is not yet defined)
has both an instance and a class reference in the same statement.

After that, x.inst is defined in the instance, so both sides refer to that.



Gary Herron

 


> Tx,
> John
>
>
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