[newbie] - what is self variable?

[Pete Shinners]

"Cervantes" <CervantesVive at hotmail.com> wrote
> i've already written a few python scripts but am just learning
> oop. i notice many examples make use of a 'self' variable
> under __init__ , what does this referr to?
>
> is it like a this pointer?

it is very much like the C "this" pointer. actually, the
name isn't special in anyway, you could use "this" if you
wanted, but i've yet to see any code that uses something
besides "self".

unlike C, you _must_ use this self variable when referencing
members and methods for the class.

this "self" is always the first argument passed to any
method functions of a class. when you "forget" to include
it in the method argument list, you'll quickly get
"wrong number of argument" errors when you try to call
the method.