Self In Class

Inside the class body self refers to the current class object.

It can be used to access / modify properties and call functions inside the class.

self is not a keyword, it's simply the name of the first parameter of a class function. It can have some other name but the naming convention suggests using 'self'.

Example

class Rectangle: def calcArea(self): # Access properties: return self.height * self.width def printData(self): print("Width =", self.width) print("Height =", self.height) # Access class function: area = self.calcArea() print("Area =", area) rectangle = Rectangle() rectangle.width = 3 rectangle.height = 2 rectangle.printData()

Output:

Width = 3 Height = 2 Area = 6

Explanation:

• At lines 17 and 18 values are set to the properties width and height.
• At line 20 the printData function is called. self points to the class object.