We create instances of classes in python in the same way we create instances of any other types. Let’s take an example class:
class Animal(object): def speak(self): print "I don’t know how to speak" def walk(self): print "I don’t know how to walk" def breath(self): print "I don’t know how to breath"
Now lets create a new instance of the animal class for 'tiger':
tiger = Animal()
Tiger = The variable name of our instance
Animal = The type of our instance
() = Adding brackets to indicate that we are creating a new instance
We can confirm that we are using the class by printing the type of our new tiger variable:
tiger = Animal() print type(tiger)
Output: <class '__main__.Animal'>
Note: ‘__main__’ would be the script name, so for example if we were working on a script called ‘jungle.py’, the output of the above print command would be <class ‘jungle.Animal’>.
Lets say we now want to execute the speak method from within the Animal class, using our new tiger variable:
tiger = Animal() tiger.speak()
Output: I don't know how to speak
We are evoking the speakmethod from the Animalclass using our tigerinstance.