What does Python init and self do

Question

In a method like:

def method(self, something):
    def __init__(?):
        ....
    ....

What does self do? What is it meant to be?

What does the __init__ method do and why is it necessary?

Answer 1

Hey @Anirudh! 

Self

The self keyword is used to access the attributes and methods of the class. self just represents an instance of the class. Let's see why self is used and how it works.

Let us consider this code:

class example:
    weekend = True
    def isholiday(self):
        if self.weekend:
            print ("Today is a holiday!!")
        else:
            print ("Not holiday")
    def change(self):
    if self.weekend:
        self.weekend = False
    else:
        self.weekend = True

a = example()
a.isholiday()

b = example()
b.change()
b.isholiday()

When an instance is created, weekend is set to True. There are 2 methods. isholiday() checks if weekend is True and if it is True, it prints "Today is a holiday!!" and if it is not True, it prints "Not holiday". And change() changes the value of weekend to False if it is True and to True if it is False. We create 2 instances 'a' and 'b' and run the methods. The output for the above code is:

#Output using self
Today is aholiday!!
Not holiday

Now we modify the above code and write it without using self:

class example:
    weekend = True
    def isholiday(example):
        if example.weekend:
            print ("Today is a holiday!!")
        else:
            print ("Not holiday")
    def change(example):
    if example.weekend:
        example.weekend = False
    else:
        example.weekend = True

a = example()
a.isholiday()

b = example()
b.change()
b.isholiday()

And the output for this code is:

#Output without using self
Today is a holiday!!
Today is a holiday!!

In the first code, the data of only the mentioned instance was changed and the data of other instance was untouched. But in second code, the data of both the instances of class example was changed. So the self is used to access the attributes and method on that instance only. 

__init__

__init__ is a reserved keyword in python used to initialize attributes of the class when an object of that class is created. It is also known as constructor in OOPC

Comments

#Output using self
Today is a holiday!!
Today is a holiday!!

---

Hey! I ran the same code, I am getting the right output. I have attached the screenshot below

Answer 2

_init_ is the constructor for a class. The self parameter refers to the instance of the object. The basic idea is that it is a special method which is automatically called when an object of that Class is created. You'll need to pass "self" to any class functions as the first argument if you want them to behave as non-static methods. "self" are instance variables for your class.