$$ \newcommand{\tp}{\thinspace .} $$

 

 

 

Introduction to classes in Python

Hans Petter Langtangen [1, 2]

[1] Center for Biomedical Computing, Simula Research Laboratory
[2] Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

Jun 14, 2016


Table of contents

Simple function classes
      Challenge: functions with parameters
      Representing a function as a class
      The self variable
      Another function class example
      Alternative function class implementations
      Making classes without the class construct
      Closures
More examples on classes
      Bank accounts
      Phone book
      A circle
Special methods
      The call special method
      Example: Automagic differentiation
      Example: Automagic integration
      Turning an instance into a string
      Example: Phone book with special methods
      Adding objects
      Example: Class for polynomials
      Arithmetic operations and other special methods
      Special methods for string conversion
Example: Class for vectors in the plane
      Some mathematical operations on vectors
      Implementation
      Usage
Example: Class for complex numbers
      Implementation
      Illegal operations
      Mixing complex and real numbers
      Dynamic, static, strong, weak, and duck typing
      Special methods for "right" operands
      Inspecting instances
Static methods and attributes
Summary
      Chapter topics
      Example: interval arithmetic
Exercises
      Exercise 1: Make a function class
      Exercise 2: Add a data attribute to a class
      Exercise 3: Add functionality to a class
      Exercise 4: Make classes for a rectangle and a triangle
      Exercise 5: Make a class for quadratic functions
      Exercise 6: Make a class for straight lines
      Exercise 7: Flexible handling of function arguments
      Exercise 8: Wrap functions in a class
      Exercise 9: Flexible handling of function arguments
      Exercise 10: Deduce a class implementation
      Exercise 11: Implement special methods in a class
      Exercise 12: Make a class for summation of series
      Exercise 13: Apply a numerical differentiation class
      Exercise 14: Implement an addition operator
      Exercise 15: Implement in-place += and -= operators
      Exercise 16: Implement a class for numerical differentiation
      Exercise 17: Examine a program
      Exercise 18: Modify a class for numerical differentiation
      Exercise 19: Make a class for the Heaviside function
      Exercise 20: Make a class for the indicator function
      Exercise 21: Make a class for piecewise constant functions
      Exercise 22: Speed up repeated integral calculations
      Exercise 23: Apply a class for polynomials
      Exercise 24: Find a bug in a class for polynomials
      Exercise 25: Implement subtraction of polynomials
      Exercise 26: Test the functionality of pretty print of polynomials
      Exercise 27: Vectorize a class for polynomials
      Exercise 28: Use a dict to hold polynomial coefficients
      Exercise 29: Extend class Vec2D to work with lists/tuples
      Exercise 30: Extend class Vec2D to 3D vectors
      Exercise 31: Use NumPy arrays in class Vec2D
      Exercise 32: Impreciseness of interval arithmetics
      Exercise 33: Make classes for students and courses
      Exercise 34: Find local and global extrema of a function
      Exercise 35: Find the optimal production for a company
References

A class packs a set of data (variables) together with a set of functions operating on the data. The goal is to achieve more modular code by grouping data and functions into manageable (often small) units. Most of the mathematical computations in this document can easily be coded without using classes, but in many problems, classes enable either more elegant solutions or code that is easier to extend at a later stage. In the non-mathematical world, where there are no mathematical concepts and associated algorithms to help structure the problem solving, software development can be very challenging. Classes may then improve the understanding of the problem and contribute to simplify the modeling of data and actions in programs. As a consequence, almost all large software systems being developed in the world today are heavily based on classes.

Programming with classes is offered by most modern programming languages, also Python. In fact, Python employs classes to a very large extent, but one can use the language for lots of purposes without knowing what a class is. However, one will frequently encounter the class concept when searching books or the World Wide Web for Python programming information. And more important, classes often provide better solutions to programming problems. This document therefore gives an introduction to the class concept with emphasis on applications to numerical computing. More advanced use of classes, including inheritance and object orientation, is treated in the document Object-oriented programming [1].

The folder src/class contains all the program examples from the present document.