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I just started learning Python from Learn Python The Hard Way by Zed A. Shaw. However, I am confused about when should one use the init method? Is it mandatory to use it? What happens of I don't?

samacker77so
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  • Possible duplicate of [Python \_\_init\_\_ and self what do they do?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/625083/python-init-and-self-what-do-they-do) – Stephen Rauch Jan 06 '17 at 16:01

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Perhaps someone else has a better answer, but this is how I understand it. The metaphor of a blueprint for building a house works well here. Say you have a housing development with many different houses that look essentially the same with slight variations. Building a house requires that you do essentially the same thing each time, then adding customizations.

Your class declarations are like blueprints, telling your Python program everything it needs to know about a house. However, your __init__ method provides the instructions for the absolute basic requirements for that object.

Just like you can't have a house without a door, you can't have a Student object or a Pet object without a few basic properties like name, age. Your __init__ method will tell Python what it needs to do whenever you create a new Student or Pet, just like a blueprint will tell a general contractor that every house needs a door.

The __init__ method also establishes the object's self variable. self allows you to be specific about variable assignment for a single copy of a class.

Hope this helps!

David House
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