to property or function in class object

[Steve Holden]

james_027 wrote:
> hi,
> 
> i am very new to python, not knowing much about good design. I have an
> object here for example a Customer object, where I need to retrieve a
> info which has a number of lines of code to get it.
> 
> my question is weather what approach should I use? to use the property
> which is from the python new class style as I understand or simple use
> function that will return the the info I needed.
> 
> class Customer(object):
> 
> current_balance = property(fget=_get_current_balance)
> 
This will need to go down below the definition of _get_current_balance()
  if you want to avoid an error in compilation.

> def _get_current_balance(self):
>    # coding here
> 
> or
> 
> def get_current_balance(self):
>    # coding here
> 
> While both approach would get the job done, I don't know much about
> the performance, benefits, design philosophy between the two approach.
> Any lecture will be very appreciated.
> 
It's pretty much a matter of choice when the method to retrieve the
value doesn't take any arguments. If it *does* take arguments then you
can't use a property.

regards
  Steve
-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
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