Difference between methods and attributes in python

A method is an attribute, but not all attributes are methods. For example, if we have the class

class MyClass(object):

    class_name = 'My Class'

    def my_method(self):
        print('Hello World!')

This class has two attributes, class_name and my_method. But only my_method is a method. Methods are functions that belong to your object. There are additional hidden attributes present on all classes, but this is what your exercise is likely talking about.

A quick,simplified explanation.

Attribute == characteristics. Method == operations/ actions.

For example, Let's describe a cat (meow!).

What are the attributes(characteristics) of a cat? It has different breed, name, color, whether they have spots...etc.

What are methods (actions) of a cat? It can meow, climb, scratch you, destroy your laptop, etc.

Notice the difference, attributes define characteristics of the cat.

Methods, on the other hand, defines action/operation (verb).

Now, putting the above definition in mind, let's create an object of class 'cat'...meowww

class Cat():

To create attributes, use def init(self, arg1, arg2) - (as shown below).

The 'self' keyword is a reference to a particular instance of a class.

def __init__(self, mybreed, name):
    
    # Attributes
    self.breed = mybreed
    self.name = name

# Operations/actions --> methods
def kill_mouse(self):
    print('Insert some method to kill mouse here')

Notice (above) 'mybreed' is an input argument that the user need to specify, whereas self.breed is an attribute of the instance assigned to 'mybreed' argument. Usually, they're the same (e.g. breed for both, self.breed = breed). Here, it's coded differently to avoid confusion.

And attributes are usually written as 'self.attribute_name' (as shown above).

Now, methods are more like actions, or operations, where you define a function inside the body of a class to perform some operation, for example, killing a mouse. A method could also utilize the attributes that you defined within the object itself.

Another key difference between a method and attribute is how you call it.

For example, let's say we create an instance using the above class we defined.

my_cat = Cat()

To call an attribute, you use

my_cat.name

or

my_cat.breed

For methods, you call it to execute some action. In Python, you call method with an open and close parenthesis, as shown below:

my_cat.kill_mouse()

A method is a function defined in the class. An attribute is an instance variable defined in the class.

Example:

class Example(object):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def hello(self):
        print 'Hi, I am ' + self.name

Here hello is a method, and name is an attribute.

class example:
    global a
    # a=0

    def __init__(self,x,y):
        self.fname=x
        self.lname=y
    def show(self):
        return "first name: {} & Last name: {}".format(self.fname,self.lname)

obj1=example('reyan','ishtiaq')
obj2=example('ishtiaq','reyan')

print('method associated with obj1: '+ obj1.show())
print('method associated with obj2: '+ obj2.show())

obj1.a=20
obj2.a=30

print(obj1.a)
print(obj2.a)

output: method associated with obj1: first name: reyan & Last name: ishtiaq................ method associated with obj2: first name: ishtiaq & Last name: reyan................ 20 30

Below u can see that I made a class called "example" with two class attributes: variable1 and variable2.

class example():
    def __init__(self, variable1, variable2):
        self.variable1 = variable1
        self.variable2 = variable1

i did not construct a method inside this class. Notice that variable1 comes first and after comes variable2 inside the init():

below i created an object "object1" with the example class. I created the example class with two arguments "variable1" and "variable2". "self" does not count), so i have to pass two arguments when calling the example class. I gave two variables "10" and "20".

object1 = example(10,20)

with the code below i just get the value of the first argument, which is 10.

print(object1.variable1)