What is the purpose of self?

Question

What is the purpose of the self word in Python? I understand it refers to the specific object created from that class, but I can't see why it explicitly needs to be added to every function as a parameter. To illustrate, in Ruby I can do this:

class myClass
    def myFunc(name)
        @name = name
    end
end

Which I understand, quite easily. However in Python I need to include self:

class myClass:
    def myFunc(self, name):
        self.name = name

Can anyone talk me through this? It is not something I've come across in my (admittedly limited) experience.

Answer 1

I like this example:

class A: 
    foo = []
a, b = A(), A()
a.foo.append(5)
b.foo
ans: [5]

class A: 
    def __init__(self): 
        self.foo = []
a, b = A(), A()
a.foo.append(5)
b.foo
ans: []

Answer 2

It’s there to follow the Python zen “explicit is better than implicit”. It’s indeed a reference to your class object. In Java and PHP, for example, it's called this.

If user_type_name is a field on your model you access it by self.user_type_name.

Answer 3

self is an object reference to the object itself, therefore, they are same. Python methods are not called in the context of the object itself. self in Python may be used to deal with custom object models or something.

Answer 4

The following excerpts are from the Python documentation about self:

As in Modula-3, there are no shorthands [in Python] for referencing the object’s members from its methods: the method function is declared with an explicit first argument representing the object, which is provided implicitly by the call.

Often, the first argument of a method is called self. This is nothing more than a convention: the name self has absolutely no special meaning to Python. Note, however, that by not following the convention your code may be less readable to other Python programmers, and it is also conceivable that a class browser program might be written that relies upon such a convention.

For more information, see the Python documentation tutorial on classes.

Answer 5

Let's say you have a class ClassA which contains a method methodA defined as:

def methodA(self, arg1, arg2):
    # do something

and ObjectA is an instance of this class.

Now when ObjectA.methodA(arg1, arg2) is called, python internally converts it for you as:

ClassA.methodA(ObjectA, arg1, arg2)

The self variable refers to the object itself.

Answer 6

In the __init__ method, self refers to the newly created object; in other class methods, it refers to the instance whose method was called.

self, as a name, is just a convention, call it as you want ! but when using it, for example to delete the object, you have to use the same name: __del__(var), where var was used in the __init__(var,[...])

You should take a look at cls too, to have the bigger picture. This post could be helpful.