There’s no error here. You’re printing a function, and that’s what functions look like.
To actually call the function, you have to put parens after that. You’re already doing that above. If you want to print the result of calling the function, just have the function return the value, and put the print there. For example:
print test.sort_word_list()
On the other hand, if you want the function to mutate the object’s state, and then print the state some other way, that’s fine too.
Now, your code seems to work in some places, but not others; let’s look at why:
parser
sets a variable calledword_list
, and you laterprint test.word_list
, so that works.sort_word_list
sets a variable calledsorted_word_list
, and you laterprint test.sort_word_list
—that is, the function, not the variable. So, you see the bound method. (Also, as Jon Clements points out, even if you fix this, you’re going to printNone
, because that’s whatsort
returns.)num_words
sets a variable callednum_words
, and you again print the function—but in this case, the variable has the same name as the function, meaning that you’re actually replacing the function with its output, so it works. This is probably not what you want to do, however.
(There are cases where, at first glance, that seems like it might be a good idea—you only want to compute something once, and then access it over and over again without constantly recomputing that. But this isn’t the way to do it. Either use a @property
, or use a memoization decorator.)
Methods in Python are like functions except that it is attached to an object.The methods are called on objects and it possibly make changes to that object. These methods can be Bound, Unbound or Static method. The static methods are one of the types of Unbound method. These types are explained in detail below.
Bound methods
If a function is an attribute of class and it is accessed via the instances, they are called bound methods. A bound method is one that has ‘self
‘ as its first argument. Since these are dependent on the instance of classes, these are also known as instance methods.
Need for these bound methods
The methods inside the classes would take at least one argument. To make them zero-argument methods, ‘decorators
‘ has to be used. Different instances of a class have different values associated with them.
For example, if there is a class “Fruits”, and instances like apple, orange, mango are possible. Each instance may have different size, color, taste, and nutrients in it. Thus to alter any value for a specific instance, the method must have ‘self’ as an argument that allows it to alter only its property.
Example:
class
sample(
object
):
objectNo
=
0
def
__init__(
self
, name1):
self
.name
=
name1
sample.objectNo
=
sample.objectNo
+
1
self
.objNumber
=
sample.objectNo
def
myFunc(
self
):
print
(
"My name is "
,
self
.name,
"from object "
,
self
.objNumber)
def
alterIt(
self
, newName):
self
.name
=
newName
def
myFunc2():
print
(
"I am not a bound method !!!"
)
samp1
=
sample(
"A"
)
samp1.myFunc()
samp2
=
sample(
"B"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp2.alterIt(
"C"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp1.myFunc()
Output:
My name is A from object 1 My name is B from object 2 My name is C from object 2 My name is A from object 1
In the above example two instances namely samp1 and samp2 are created. Note that when the function alterIt()
is applied to the second instance, only that particular instance’s value is changed. The line samp1.myFunc() will be expanded as sample.myFunc(samp1). For this method no explicit argument is required to be passed. The instance samp1 will be passed as argument to the myFunc(). The line samp1.myFunc2() will generate the error :
Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/4f130d34a1a72402e0d26bab554c2cf6.py", line 26, in samp1.myFunc2() #----------> error line TypeError: myFunc2() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was given
It means that this method is unbound. It does not accept any instance as an argument. These functions are unbound functions.
Unbound methods and Static methods
Methods that do not have an instance of the class as the first argument are known as unbound methods. As of Python 3.0, the unbound methods have been removed from the language. They are not bounded with any specific object of the class. To make the method myFunc2() work in the above class it should be made into a static method
Static methods are similar to class methods but are bound completely to class instead of particular objects. They are accessed using class names.
Need for making a method static
Not all the methods need to alter the instances of a class. They might serve any common purpose. A method may be a utility function also.
For example, When we need to use certain mathematical functions, we use the built in class Math
. The methods in this class are made static because they have nothing to do with specific objects. They do common actions. Thus each time it is not an optimized way to write as:
math=Math() math.ceil(5.23)
So they can be simply accessed using their class name as Math.ceil(5.23)
.
A method can be made static in two ways:
- Using staticmethod()
- Using decorator
Using staticmethod(): The staticmethod()
function takes the function to be converted as its argument and returns the static version of that function. A static function knows nothing about the class, it just works with the parameters passed to it.
Example:
class
sample():
def
myFunc2(x):
print
(
"I am"
, x,
"from the static method"
)
sample.myFunc2
=
staticmethod
(sample.myFunc2)
sample.myFunc2(
"A"
)
Output:
I am A from the static method
Using decorators: These are features of Python used for modifying one part of the program using another part of the program at the time of compilation. The decorator that can be used to make a method static is
@staticmethod
This informs the built-in default metaclass not to create any bound methods for this method. Once this line is added before a function, the function can be called using the class name. Consider the example taken for the Bound method where we encountered an error. To overcome that, it can be written as:
class
sample(
object
):
objectNo
=
0
def
__init__(
self
, name1):
self
.name
=
name1
sample.objectNo
=
sample.objectNo
+
1
self
.objNumber
=
sample.objectNo
def
myFunc(
self
):
print
(
"My name is "
,
self
.name,
"from object "
,
self
.objNumber)
def
alterIt(
self
, newName):
self
.name
=
newName
@staticmethod
def
myFunc2():
print
(
"I am not a bound method !!!"
)
samp1
=
sample(
"A"
)
samp1.myFunc()
sample.myFunc2()
samp2
=
sample(
"B"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp2.alterIt(
"C"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp1.myFunc()
Output:
My name is A from object 1 I am not a bound method !!! My name is B from object 2 My name is C from object 2 My name is A from object 1
Here, the line sample.myFunc2() runs without any error and the print() within it works perfectly and gives the output I am not a bound method!!!
Methods in Python are like functions except that it is attached to an object.The methods are called on objects and it possibly make changes to that object. These methods can be Bound, Unbound or Static method. The static methods are one of the types of Unbound method. These types are explained in detail below.
Bound methods
If a function is an attribute of class and it is accessed via the instances, they are called bound methods. A bound method is one that has ‘self
‘ as its first argument. Since these are dependent on the instance of classes, these are also known as instance methods.
Need for these bound methods
The methods inside the classes would take at least one argument. To make them zero-argument methods, ‘decorators
‘ has to be used. Different instances of a class have different values associated with them.
For example, if there is a class “Fruits”, and instances like apple, orange, mango are possible. Each instance may have different size, color, taste, and nutrients in it. Thus to alter any value for a specific instance, the method must have ‘self’ as an argument that allows it to alter only its property.
Example:
class
sample(
object
):
objectNo
=
0
def
__init__(
self
, name1):
self
.name
=
name1
sample.objectNo
=
sample.objectNo
+
1
self
.objNumber
=
sample.objectNo
def
myFunc(
self
):
print
(
"My name is "
,
self
.name,
"from object "
,
self
.objNumber)
def
alterIt(
self
, newName):
self
.name
=
newName
def
myFunc2():
print
(
"I am not a bound method !!!"
)
samp1
=
sample(
"A"
)
samp1.myFunc()
samp2
=
sample(
"B"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp2.alterIt(
"C"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp1.myFunc()
Output:
My name is A from object 1 My name is B from object 2 My name is C from object 2 My name is A from object 1
In the above example two instances namely samp1 and samp2 are created. Note that when the function alterIt()
is applied to the second instance, only that particular instance’s value is changed. The line samp1.myFunc() will be expanded as sample.myFunc(samp1). For this method no explicit argument is required to be passed. The instance samp1 will be passed as argument to the myFunc(). The line samp1.myFunc2() will generate the error :
Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/4f130d34a1a72402e0d26bab554c2cf6.py", line 26, in samp1.myFunc2() #----------> error line TypeError: myFunc2() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was given
It means that this method is unbound. It does not accept any instance as an argument. These functions are unbound functions.
Unbound methods and Static methods
Methods that do not have an instance of the class as the first argument are known as unbound methods. As of Python 3.0, the unbound methods have been removed from the language. They are not bounded with any specific object of the class. To make the method myFunc2() work in the above class it should be made into a static method
Static methods are similar to class methods but are bound completely to class instead of particular objects. They are accessed using class names.
Need for making a method static
Not all the methods need to alter the instances of a class. They might serve any common purpose. A method may be a utility function also.
For example, When we need to use certain mathematical functions, we use the built in class Math
. The methods in this class are made static because they have nothing to do with specific objects. They do common actions. Thus each time it is not an optimized way to write as:
math=Math() math.ceil(5.23)
So they can be simply accessed using their class name as Math.ceil(5.23)
.
A method can be made static in two ways:
- Using staticmethod()
- Using decorator
Using staticmethod(): The staticmethod()
function takes the function to be converted as its argument and returns the static version of that function. A static function knows nothing about the class, it just works with the parameters passed to it.
Example:
class
sample():
def
myFunc2(x):
print
(
"I am"
, x,
"from the static method"
)
sample.myFunc2
=
staticmethod
(sample.myFunc2)
sample.myFunc2(
"A"
)
Output:
I am A from the static method
Using decorators: These are features of Python used for modifying one part of the program using another part of the program at the time of compilation. The decorator that can be used to make a method static is
@staticmethod
This informs the built-in default metaclass not to create any bound methods for this method. Once this line is added before a function, the function can be called using the class name. Consider the example taken for the Bound method where we encountered an error. To overcome that, it can be written as:
class
sample(
object
):
objectNo
=
0
def
__init__(
self
, name1):
self
.name
=
name1
sample.objectNo
=
sample.objectNo
+
1
self
.objNumber
=
sample.objectNo
def
myFunc(
self
):
print
(
"My name is "
,
self
.name,
"from object "
,
self
.objNumber)
def
alterIt(
self
, newName):
self
.name
=
newName
@staticmethod
def
myFunc2():
print
(
"I am not a bound method !!!"
)
samp1
=
sample(
"A"
)
samp1.myFunc()
sample.myFunc2()
samp2
=
sample(
"B"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp2.alterIt(
"C"
)
samp2.myFunc()
samp1.myFunc()
Output:
My name is A from object 1 I am not a bound method !!! My name is B from object 2 My name is C from object 2 My name is A from object 1
Here, the line sample.myFunc2() runs without any error and the print() within it works perfectly and gives the output I am not a bound method!!!
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A bound method is the one which is dependent on the instance of the class as the first argument. It passes the instance as the first argument which is used to access the variables and functions. In Python 3 and newer versions of python, all functions in the class are by default bound methods.
Let’s understand this concept with an example:
class
A:
def
func(
self
, arg):
self
.arg
=
arg
print
(
"Value of arg = "
, arg)
obj
=
A()
print
(obj.func)
Output:
< bound method A.func of <__main__.A object at 0x7fb81c5a09e8>>
Here,
obj.func(arg) is translated by python as A.func(obj, arg).
The instance obj
is automatically passed as the first argument to the function called and hence the first parameter of the function will be used to access the variables/functions of the object.
Let’s see another example of the Bound method.
class
Car:
gears
=
5
@classmethod
def
change_gears(
cls
, gears):
cls
.gears
=
gears
Car1
=
Car()
print
(
"Car1 gears before calling change_gears() = "
, Car1.gears)
Car1.change_gears(
6
)
print
(
"Gears after calling change_gears() = "
, Car1.gears)
print
(Car1.change_gears)
Output:
Car1 gears before calling change_gears() = 5 Gears after calling change_gears() = 6 <bound method Car.change_gears of <class '__main__.Car'>>
The above code is an example of a classmethod. A class method is like a bound method except that the class of the instance is passed as an argument rather than the instance itself. Here in the above example when we call Car1.change_gears(6)
, the class ‘Car’ is passed as the first argument.