Properties

Object-Oriented Programming in Python

Alex Yarosh

Content Quality Analyst @ DataCamp

Changing attribute values

class Employee:
  def set_name(self, name):
    self.name = name 
  def set_salary(self, salary):
    self.salary = salary 
  def give_raise(self, amount):
    self.salary = self.salary + amount

  def __init__(self, name, salary):
    self.name, self.salary = name, salary

emp = Employee("Miriam Azari", 35000)
# Use dot syntax and = to alter atributes
emp.salary = emp.salary + 5000

Changing attribute values

class Employee:
  def set_name(self, name):
    self.name = name 
  def set_salary(self, salary):
    self.salary = salary 
  def give_raise(self, amount):
    self.salary = self.salary + amount

  def __init__(self, name, salary):
    self.name, self.salary = name, salary

emp = Employee("Miriam Azari", 35000)
# Use dot syntax and = to alter atributes
emp.salary = emp.salary + 5000

Control attribute access?

check the value for validity
or make attributes read-only
- modifying set_salary() wouldn't prevent emp.salary = -100

Restricted and read-only attributes

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({"colA": [1,2], "colB":[3,4]})
df

  colA colB
0    1    3
1    2    4

df.columns = ["new_colA", "new_colB"]
df

  new_colA  new_colB
0    1    3
1    2    4

# will cause an error
df.columns = ["new_colA", "new_colB", "extra"]
df

ValueError: Length mismatch: 
Expected axis has 2 elements, 
new values have 3 elements

df.shape = (43, 27)
df

AttributeError: can't set attribute

@property

class Employer:
  def __init__(self, name, new_salary):
     self._salary = new_salary


  @property
  def salary(self):
     return self._salary


  @salary.setter
  def salary(self, new_salary):

     if new_salary < 0:
        raise ValueError("Invalid salary")
     self._salary = new_salary

← Use "protected" attribute with leading _ to store data

← Use @property on a method whose name is exactly the name of the restricted attribute; return the internal attribute

← Use @attr.setter on a method attr() that will be called on obj.attr = value

the value to assign passed as argument

@property

class Employer:
  def __init__(self, name, new_salary):
     self._salary = new_salary


  @property
  def salary(self):
     return self._salary


  @salary.setter
  def salary(self, new_salary):
     if new_salary < 0:
        raise ValueError("Invalid salary")
     self._salary = new_salary

emp = Employee("Miriam Azari", 35000)
# accessing the "property"
emp.salary

emp.salary = 60000 # <-- @salary.setter

emp.salary = -1000

ValueError: Invalid salary

Why use @property?

$$\text{\Large{User-facing: behave like attributes}}$$

$$\text{\Large{Developer-facing: give control of access}}$$

Other possibilities

→ Do not add @attr.setter

Create a read-only property

→ Add @attr.getter

Use for the method that is called when the property's value is retrieved

→ Add @attr.deleter

Use for the method that is called when the property is deleted using del

Let's practice!

Object-Oriented Programming in Python