Static Members

Static functions and properties are declared in the class body but don't need created instances for their usage.

Static properties

Static properties store value about the class. The value is specific for the class.

The syntax for setting value to static property is:

ClassName.memberName = value

Here's an example:

class Car: def __init__(self, modelValue): print("Object created.") self.model = modelValue # Increment static member: Car.carsCount += 1 # Set value to static member: Car.carsCount = 0 print("Initial Cars Count:", Car.carsCount) # create instances: carobj1 = Car("Toyota Corolla") carobj2 = Car("Peugeot 508") carobj3 = Car("Renault Clio") print("Final Cars Count:", Car.carsCount)

Output:

Initial Cars Count: 0 Object created. Object created. Object created. Final Cars Count: 3

Couple of things to notice:

• When an object is created via the constructor (lines 3 - 8), the static member value is incremented (due to line 8).
• At line 12 an initial value is set to the static member.
• When the static member is printed for the first time (line 14), it's value is zero.
• After objects were created via the constructor, it's value has reached 3 - the count of the created objects.

Static Functions

Static functions cannot use non-static class properties though declared in class.

They are defined via the @staticmethod decorator.

Syntax for defining:

@staticmethod def the_static_method(args):

Syntax for calling:

ClassName.funcName(args)

Here's an example:

class Person: @staticmethod def printHi(): print("Hello!") Person.printHi()

Output:

Hello!

Notice that printHi does not have any self argument used to access non-static members.