[Tutor] what is @classmethod and @staticmethod ??

[Kent Johnson]

Tony Cappellini wrote:
> Kent
> 
> Would you show the examples which show where staticmethod &
> classmethod are used?

Some good discussion here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/56ee49c203fd72e2/922f84d9d26662fc?hl=en&lnk=gst&

I don't use classmethods so I can't discuss that. For staticmethods, 
suppose I have in foo.py

class Foo(object):
   # Lots of useful stuff


In client.py I have

from foo import Foo

# Do interesting things with Foo


Now perhaps I need a function
doSomethingRelatedToFoo()
that belongs in foo.py but doesn't have to be an instance method - it is 
just a related function. I could make this a module function and change 
client.py to read

from foo import Foo, doSomethingRelatedToFoo

doSomethingRelatedToFoo()


or I could make doSomethingRelatedToFoo a staticmethod, then I don't 
have to change the import statement, I can access 
doSomethingRelatedToFoo() through the already-imported Foo class:

Foo.doSomethingRelatedToFoo()

It's a pretty small difference but I like keeping the import simple and 
not having to change it when I add doSomethingRelatedToFoo() to foo.py.

Kent