Home Original page

How modules work in Python

Larry Hudson orgnut at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 19 02:44:39 EST 2014 
On 11/18/2014 12:59 PM, sohcahtoa82 at gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 12:14:15 AM UTC-8, Larry Hudson wrote:
>> First, I'll repeat everybody else:  DON'T TOP POST!!!
>>
>> On 11/16/2014 04:41 PM, Abdul Abdul wrote:
>>> Dave,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your nice explanation. For your answer on one of my questions:
>>>
>>> *Modules don't have methods. open is an ordinary function in the module.*
>>>
>>> Isn't "method" and "function" used interchangeably? In other words, aren't they the same thing?
>>> Or, Python has some naming conventions here?
>>>
>>
>> You've already received answers to this, but a short example might clarify the difference:
>>
>> #-------  Code  --------
>> #   Define a function
>> def func1():
>>       print('This is function func1()')
>>
>> #   Define a class with a method
>> class Examp:
>>       def func2(self):
>>           print('This is method func2()')
>>
>> #   Try them out
>> obj = Examp()      #  Create an object (an instance of class Examp)
>> func1()            #  Call the function
>> obj.func2()        #  Call the method through the object
>> func2()            #  Try to call the method directly -- Error!
>> #-------  /Code  --------
>>
>> This code results in the following:
>>
>> This is function func1()
>> This is method func2()
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>     File "fun-meth.py", line 14, in <module>
>>       func2()
>> NameError: name 'func2' is not defined
>>
>>        -=- Larry -=-
>
> You COULD have something like this though:
>
> # --- myModule.py ---
> def myFunc():
>      print 'myFunc'
>
>
> # --- main.py ---
> import myModule
> myModule.myFunc()
>
>
> In this case, myFunc LOOKS like a method when it is called from main.py, but it is still a function.
>

My purpose was to give a _simple_ example of the difference in the two terms:  that a function 
is called directly and a method is called through an object.

Your example may _look_ the same (it uses the same dot syntax), but here it is to resolve a 
namespace -- a module is not an object.  So yes, this is still a function and not a method.  But 
we're getting rather pedantic here.

      -=- Larry -=-
More information about the Python-list mailing list