In this chapter, you'll learn what object-oriented programming (OOP) is, how it differs from procedural-programming, and how it can be applied. You'll then define your own classes, and learn how to create methods, attributes, and constructors.

What is OOP?

OOP termininology

Exploring object interface

Class anatomy: attributes and methods

Understanding class definitions

Create your first class

Using attributes in class definition

Class anatomy: the __init__ constructor

Correct use of __init__

Add a class constructor

Write a class from scratch

OOP Fundamentals

Inheritance and polymorphism are the core concepts of OOP that enable efficient and consistent code reuse. Learn how to inherit from a class, customize and redefine methods, and review the differences between class-level data and instance-level data.

Instance and class data

Class-level attributes

Changing class attributes

Alternative constructors

Class inheritance

Understanding inheritance

Create a subclass

Customizing functionality via inheritance

Method inheritance

Inheritance of class attributes

Customizing a DataFrame

Inheritance and Polymorphism

In this chapter, you'll learn how to make sure that objects that store the same data are considered equal, how to define and customize string representations of objects, and even how to create new error types. Through interactive exercises, you’ll learn how to further customize your classes to make them work more like standard Python data types.

Operator overloading: comparison

Overloading equality

Checking class equality

Comparison and inheritance

Operator overloading: string representation

String formatting review

String representation of objects

Exceptions

Catching exceptions

Custom exceptions

Handling exception hierarchies

Integrating with Standard Python

How do you design classes for inheritance? Does Python have private attributes? Is it possible to control attribute access? You'll find answers to these questions (and more) as you learn class design best practices.

Designing for inheritance and polymorphism

Polymorphic methods

Square and rectangle

Managing data access: private attributes

Options

_name

__name

__name__

Attribute naming conventions

Using internal attributes

Properties

What do properties do?

Create and set properties

Read-only properties

Congratulations!

Best Practices of Class Design

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a widely used programming paradigm that reduces development times—making it easier to read, reuse, and maintain your code. OOP shifts the focus from thinking about code as a sequence of actions to looking at your program as a collection of objects that interact with each other. In this course, you’ll learn how to create classes, which act as the blueprints for every object in Python. You’ll then leverage principles called inheritance and polymorphism to reuse and optimize code. Dive in and learn how to create beautiful code that’s clean and efficient!

Writing Functions in Python

Dive in and learn how to create classes and leverage inheritance and polymorphism to reuse and optimize code.

Object-Oriented Programming in Python

What do properties do?

Object-Oriented Programming in Python

Hands-on interactive exercise