[Tutor] Deleting an object

[Peter Otten]

George Nyoro wrote:

>        Last time I tried to post a question regarding this, I was asked to
> clarify. Okay so here it is. There is a class called Table and objects are
> just tables, you know, matrices, holding different types of data. Thing
> is, I want to provide a method where one can delete the object and then if
> the user tries using a variable to access a certain method or attributes,
> he gets an error. Let me give an example;
> 
> class Table:
>     def delete_this(self):
>         #code to delete this object or assign it null or None
>         pass
> 
>     def do_something(self):
>         pass

> x=Table()
> x.delete_this()
> 
> #at this point, I want such that if I try to use x I get some sort of
> #error
> e.g.
> 
> x.do_something()
> 
> #Error: x is definitely not an object anymore
> 
> 
>  All clear?


>>> class Parrot:
...     def hello(self):
...             print("Hello")
...     def delete_this(self):
...             self.__class__ = DeadParrot
...
>>> class DeadParrot:
...     def __getattr__(self, name):
...             raise Exception("This parrot is no more")
...
>>> p = Parrot()
>>> p.hello()
Hello
>>> p.delete_this()
>>> p.hello()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 3, in __getattr__
Exception: This parrot is no more

But I don't think it's a good idea...