What are properties called in Python?

Question

I'm trying to figure out the proper name for these properties which are written using underscores, so that I can read about them and understand them more. They seem to generally be lower level things, more advanced stuff for really explicit behavior.

What terminology is used for these underscore properties/methods?

duplicate:http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12117087/python-hide-methods-with — Bas Swinckels, Sep 17 '13 at 20:27
This might help: http://www.rafekettler.com/magicmethods.html — freakish, Sep 17 '13 at 20:30
@BasSwinckels Not a duplicate, that is about name mangling, this is about python's magic methods (`__str__`, `__repr__`) — daniel gratzer, Sep 17 '13 at 20:30
possible duplicate of [Difference beetween "\_\_method\_\_" and "method"](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/935378/difference-beetween-method-and-method) — Josh Lee, Sep 17 '13 at 20:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '13 at 20:28

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"Magic methods" is a term often used for those that are methods. "Double-underscore" is also sometimes used.

PEP 8 describes them as "magic".

answered Sep 17 '13 at 20:28

BrenBarn

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Also, "dunder" for double-under. – Marcin Sep 17 '13 at 20:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 17 '13 at 20:38

"Magic Methods". You can learn more about them here: http://docs.python.org/2/reference/datamodel.html#basic-customization

Important ones are:

__init__(): Constructor for a class
__str__() (or __unicode__(): verbose name of the object used whenever string conversion is needed (e.g. when calling print my_object

I'd say those are the one you'll need in the beginning.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 17 '13 at 20:46

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Dunder. e.g. __init__ can be referred to as "dunder init". See this alias.

edited Sep 17 '13 at 20:46

Marcin

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answered Sep 17 '13 at 20:43

Graeme Stuart

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What are __properties__ called in Python?

3 Answers3

What are properties called in Python?