Model and Object Oriented Programming
Class and Object Terms
The foundations of Object-Oriented Programming is defining a Class
- In Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), a class is a blueprint for creating an Object. (a data structure). An Object is used like many other Python variables.
- A Class has ...
- a collection of data, these are called Attributes and in Python are pre-fixed using the keyword self
- a collection of Functions/Procedures. These are called *Methods when they exist inside a Class definition.
- An Object is created from the Class/Template. Characteristics of objects ...
- an Object is an Instance of the Class/Template
- there can be many Objects created from the same Class
- each Object contains its own Instance Data
- the data is setup by the Constructor, this is the "init" method in a Python class
- all methods in the Class/Template become part of the Object, methods are accessed using dot notation (object.method())
Class and Object Code
from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash, check_password_hash
from datetime import date
import json
class User:
def __init__(self, name, uid, classof, password, dob):
self._name = name # variables with self prefix become part of the object,
self._uid = uid
self._classof = classof
self.set_password(password)
self._dob = dob
@property
def name(self):
return self._name
# a setter function, allows name to be updated after initial object creation
@name.setter
def name(self, name):
self._name = name
# a getter method, extracts email from object
@property
def uid(self):
return self._uid
# a setter function, allows name to be updated after initial object creation
@uid.setter
def uid(self, uid):
self._uid = uid
# check if uid parameter matches user id in object, return boolean
def is_uid(self, uid):
return self._uid == uid
@property
def classof(self):
return self._classof
@classof.setter
def classof(self, classof):
self.classof = classof
# dob property is returned as string, to avoid unfriendly outcomes
@property
def dob(self):
dob_string = self._dob.strftime('%m-%d-%Y')
return dob_string
# dob should be have verification for type date
@dob.setter
def dob(self, dob):
self._dob = dob
# age is calculated and returned each time it is accessed
@property
def age(self):
today = date.today()
return today.year - self._dob.year - ((today.month, today.day) < (self._dob.month, self._dob.day))
# dictionary is customized, removing password for security purposes
@property
def dictionary(self):
dict = {
"name" : self.name,
"uid" : self.uid,
"classof" : self.classof,
"dob" : self.dob,
"age" : self.age
}
return dict
# update password, this is conventional setter
def set_password(self, password):
"""Create a hashed password."""
self._password = generate_password_hash(password, method='sha256')
# check password parameter versus stored/encrypted password
def is_password(self, password):
"""Check against hashed password."""
result = check_password_hash(self._password, password)
return result
# output content using json dumps, this is ready for API response
def __str__(self):
return json.dumps(self.dictionary)
# output command to recreate the object, uses attribute directly
def __repr__(self):
return f'User(name={self._name}, uid={self._uid}, class of={self._classof} password={self._password},dob={self._dob})'
if __name__ == "__main__":
u1 = User( name='Thomas Edison', uid='toby', classof='1867', password='123toby', dob=date(1847, 2, 11))
print("JSON ready string:\n", u1, "\n")
print("Raw Variables of object:\n", vars(u1), "\n")
print("Raw Attributes and Methods of object:\n", dir(u1), "\n")
print("Representation to Re-Create the object:\n", repr(u1), "\n")