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python method with single underscore

Bottle Vines answered on August 29, 2022 Popularity 7/10 Helpfulness 1/10

answer python method with single underscore

related single underscore in python class

python method with single underscore

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Single Underscore
In a class, names with a leading underscore indicate to other programmers that the attribute or method is intended to be be used inside that class. However, privacy is not enforced in any way. Using leading underscores for functions in a module indicates it should not be imported from somewhere else.

From the PEP-8 style guide:

_single_leading_underscore: weak "internal use" indicator. E.g. from M import * does not import objects whose name starts with an underscore.

Double Underscore (Name Mangling)
From the Python docs:

Any identifier of the form __spam (at least two leading underscores, at most one trailing underscore) is textually replaced with _classname__spam, where classname is the current class name with leading underscore(s) stripped. This mangling is done without regard to the syntactic position of the identifier, so it can be used to define class-private instance and class variables, methods, variables stored in globals, and even variables stored in instances. private to this class on instances of other classes.

And a warning from the same page:

Name mangling is intended to give classes an easy way to define “private” instance variables and methods, without having to worry about instance variables defined by derived classes, or mucking with instance variables by code outside the class. Note that the mangling rules are designed mostly to avoid accidents; it still is possible for a determined soul to access or modify a variable that is considered private.

Example
>>> class MyClass():
...     def __init__(self):
...             self.__superprivate = "Hello"
...             self._semiprivate = ", world!"
...
>>> mc = MyClass()
>>> print mc.__superprivate
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: myClass instance has no attribute '__superprivate'
>>> print mc._semiprivate
, world!
>>> print mc.__dict__
{'_MyClass__superprivate': 'Hello', '_semiprivate': ', world!'}

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Contributed on Aug 29 2022

Bottle Vines

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single underscore in python class

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class MyClass:
    def __init__(self):
        self._private_attribute = 42

    def _private_method(self):
        return "This is a private method."

    def public_method(self):
        print("This is a public method.")
        print("Accessing private attribute:", self._private_attribute)
        print("Calling private method:", self._private_method())

my_obj = MyClass()
my_obj.public_method()

Popularity 3/10 Helpfulness 1/10 Language python

Source: Grepper

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Contributed on Sep 11 2023

YOU.com

0 Answers Avg Quality 2/10

python method with single underscore

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single underscore in python class

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