why should i use @classmethod when i can call the constructor in the without the annotation?

Question

I was looking into the advantages of @classmethods and figured that we can directly call the constructor from any method, in that case, why do we need a class method. Are there some advantages which i have missed.

Why this code, what are the advantages?

class Person: 
    def __init__(self, name, age): 
        self.name = name 
        self.age = age 

    @classmethod
    def fromBirthYear(cls, name, year): 
        return cls(name, date.today().year - year) 

and not this code :-

class Person: 
    def __init__(self, name, age): 
        self.name = name 
        self.age = age 

    def fromBirthYear(name, year): 
        return Person(name, date.today().year - year) 

Answer 1

Because if you derive from Person, fromBirthYear will always return a Person object and not the derived class.

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def fromBirthYear(name, year):
        return Person(name, year)


class Fred(Person):
    pass
print(Fred.fromBirthYear('bob', 2019))

Output:

<__main__.Person object at 0x6ffffcd7c88>

You would want Fred.fromBirthYear to return a Fred object.

In the end the language will let you do a lot of things that you shouldn't do.

Answer 2

Given

from datetime import date
class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def fromBirthYear(name, year):
        return Person(name, date.today().year - year)

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"Person('{self.name}', {self.age})"

your code works find, as long as you don't access fromBirthYear via an instance of Person:

>>> Person("bob", 2010)
Person('bob', 10)

However, invoking it from an instance of Person will not:

>>> Person("bob", 2010).fromBirthYear("bob again", 10)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: fromBirthYear() takes 2 positional arguments but 3 were given

This is due to how the function type implements the descriptor protocol: access through an instance calls its __get__ method (which returns the method object that "prepasses" the instance to the underlying function), while access through the class returns the function itself.

---

To make things more consistent, you can define fromBirthYear as a static method, which always gives access to the underlying function whether accessed from the class or an instance:

from datetime import date
class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    @staticmethod
    def fromBirthYear(name, year):
        return Person(name, date.today().year - year)

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"Person('{self.name}', {self.age})"


>>> Person.fromBirthYear("bob", 2010)
Person('bob', 10)
>>> Person.fromBirthYear("bob", 2010).fromBirthYear("bob again", 2015)
Person('bob again', 5)

---

Finally, a class method behaves somewhat like a static method, being consistent in the arguments received whether invoked from the class or an instance of the class. But, like an instance method, it does receive one implicit argument: the class itself, rather than the instance of the class. The benefit here is that the instance returned by the class method can be determined at runtime. Say you have a subclass of Person

from datetime import date
class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    @classmethod
    def fromBirthYear(cls, name, year):
        return cls(name, date.today().year - year)

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"Person('{self.name}', {self.age})"

class DifferentPerson(Person):
    pass

Both classes can be used to call fromBirthYear, but the return value now depends on the class which calls it.

>>> type(Person.fromBirthYear("bob", 2010))
<class '__main__.Person'>
>>> type(DifferentPerson.fromBirthYear("other bog", 2010))
<class '__main__.DifferentPerson'>

Answer 3

Using the @classmethod decorator has the following effects:

1. The method is neatly documented as being intended for use this way.

2. Calling the method from an instance works:

>>> p = Person('Jayna', 43)
>>> p.fromBirthYear('Scott', 2003)
<__main__.Person object at 0x7f1c44e6aa60>

Whereas the other version will break:

>>> p = Person('Jayna', 43)
>>> p.fromBirthYear('Scott', 2003)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: fromBirthYear() takes 2 positional arguments but 3 were given
>>> p.fromBirthYear(2003) # Jayna herself became the `name` argument
<__main__.Person object at 0x7f1c44e6a3a0>
>>> p.fromBirthYear(2003).name # this should be a string!
<__main__.Person object at 0x7f1c44e6a610>

3. The class itself is passed as a parameter (this is the difference between @classmethod and @staticmethod). This allows for various polymorphism tricks:

>>> class Base:
...     _count = 0
...     @classmethod
...     def factory(cls):
...         cls._count += 1
...         print(f'{cls._count} {cls.__name__} instance(s) created via factory so far')
...         return cls()
... 
>>> class Derived(Base):
...     _count = 0 # if we shadow the count here, it will be found by the `+=`
...     @classmethod
...     def factory(cls):
...         print('making a derived instance')
...         # super() not available in a `@staticmethod`
...         return super().factory()
... 
>>> Base.factory()
1 Base instance(s) created via factory so far
<__main__.Base object at 0x7f1c44e6a4f0>
>>> 
>>> Derived.factory()
making a derived instance
1 Derived instance(s) created via factory so far
<__main__.Derived object at 0x7f1c44e63e20>
>>> 
>>> Base().factory()
2 Base instance(s) created via factory so far
<__main__.Base object at 0x7f1c44e6a520>
>>> 
>>> Derived().factory()
making a derived instance
2 Derived instance(s) created via factory so far
<__main__.Derived object at 0x7f1c44e63e20>

Note that Derived.factory and Derived().factory would create Derived rather than Base instances even if it weren't overridden:

>>> class Derived(Base):
...     _count = 0
...     pass
... 
>>> Derived.factory()
1 Derived instance(s) created via factory so far
<__main__.Derived object at 0x7f1c44e63e20>

This is only possible using @classmethod, since otherwise there is no variable cls to call and we are stuck with a hard-coded Base. We would have to override the method to return Derived explicitly, even if we didn't want to change any other logic.