Variable scope in classes

[Larry Bates]

I'm confused about variable scope in a class
that is derived from a base class framework.

Can someone enlighten me on why bar.__init__
method can't see self.__something variable
in the foo.__init__?

Example:
class foo:
def __init__(self):
print self.__something
class bar(foo):
__something="This is a test"

def __init__(self):
foo.__init__(self)
x=bar()

returns the following traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File
"C:\Python22\Lib\site-packages\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py" ,
line 301, in RunScript
exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 13, in ?
x=bar()
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 10, in __init__
foo.__init__()
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 3, in __init__
print self.__something
AttributeError: bar instance has no attribute '_foo__something'

Is there some "other" way to do this without passing information
through foo.__init__ argument list?

Regards,
Larry Bates
Syscon

[Glenn Andreas]

In article <P6********************@comcast.com>,
"Larry Bates" <lb****@swamisoft.com> wrote:

I'm confused about variable scope in a class
that is derived from a base class framework.

Can someone enlighten me on why bar.__init__
method can't see self.__something variable
in the foo.__init__?

Because __something is "private" to bar, and thus not visible anywhere
else (unless you manually tweak on the "_foo", which is tricky and
really not very nice).
Example:
class foo:
def __init__(self):
print self.__something
class bar(foo):
__something="This is a test"

def __init__(self):
foo.__init__(self)
x=bar()

If you get rid of the private underscore:

class foo:
def __init__(self):
print self.something
class bar(foo):
something="This is a test"

def __init__(self):
foo.__init__(self)
x = bar()

it works fine.

[David MacQuigg]

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 16:03:49 -0600, "Larry Bates"
<lb****@swamisoft.com> wrote:

I'm confused about variable scope in a class
that is derived from a base class framework.

Can someone enlighten me on why bar.__init__
method can't see self.__something variable
in the foo.__init__?

Example:
class foo:
def __init__(self):
print self.__something
class bar(foo):
__something="This is a test"

def __init__(self):
foo.__init__(self)
x=bar()

returns the following traceback:
So why did you put __ in front of 'something' if you were not
intending this to be a "private" variable?
Traceback (most recent call last):
File
"C:\Python22\Lib\site-packages\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\scriptutils.py" ,
line 301, in RunScript
exec codeObject in __main__.__dict__
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 13, in ?
x=bar()
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 10, in __init__
foo.__init__()
File "F:\SYSCON\SMARTROUTE\classjunk.py", line 3, in __init__
print self.__something
AttributeError: bar instance has no attribute '_foo__something'
Python makes the the variable "private" by prepending _foo to whatever
you name with two leading underscores.

-- Dave
Is there some "other" way to do this without passing information
through foo.__init__ argument list?

Regards,
Larry Bates
Syscon