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newbie: constructor question

Greg Krohn ("X", "@") "gkrohnXvolucris.8m.com".replace
Mon Oct 14 23:31:40 EDT 2002 
"Alexander Eisenhuth" <stacom at stacom-software.de> wrote in message
news:3DAAF148.3060509 at stacom-software.de...
> Hallo everybody,
>
> is it possible to implement multiple constructors with different no. of
arguments for one class ?
>
>   >>> class A:
> def __init__(self, a):
> self._a = a
> def __init__(self,a,b):
> self._b = b
> def __init__(self,a,b,c):
> self._c =c
>
>   >>>obj = A(12)
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>     File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in ?
>       obj = A(12)
> TypeError: __init__() takes exactly 4 arguments (2 given)
>   >>>
>
> --------------------------------
> That doesn't work. Any suggestions ?
>
> Thanks in forward
>
> Alexander

Depending on what you are actually trying to accomplish, this might work:

class ClassA:
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        for kw in kwargs:
            setattr(self, kw, kwargs[kw])


Use it like this:

>>> objA = ClassA(a=12)
>>> print objA.a
12

>>> objB = ClassA(a=12, b='Python')
>>> print objB.a, objB.b
12 Python

Disclaimer: If you are simply wondering about method overloading, than
ignore this post. If you are wondering about creating attributes dynamically
on initialization, than this post might help.
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