Variables declared inside the class definition, but not inside a method are class or static variables:
>>> class MyClass: ... i = 3 ... >>> MyClass.i 3
As @millerdev points out, this creates a class-level i
variable, but this is distinct from any instance-level i
variable, so you could have
>>> m = MyClass() >>> m.i = 4 >>> MyClass.i, m.i >>> (3, 4)
This is different from C++ and Java, but not so different from C#, where a static member can’t be accessed using a reference to an instance.
See what the Python tutorial has to say on the subject of classes and class objects.
@Steve Johnson has already answered regarding static methods, also documented under “Built-in Functions” in the Python Library Reference.
class C: @staticmethod def f(arg1, arg2, ...): ...
@beidy recommends classmethods over staticmethod, as the method then receives the class type as the first argument, but I’m still a little fuzzy on the advantages of this approach over staticmethod. If you are too, then it probably doesn’t matter.