what is the use of the word "self" in a beginning python constructor?

Question

Hello so this is my first time learning about python, and i came across with constructor. Can someone please tell me why do we need the word 'self'. Here is the code: def init(self,n,p,i,):

Answer 1

"self" means that one of the arguments for the constructor is the object itself. It seems counterintuitive to need an object to create an object, but the "self" being referred to when initializing the object instance is the new instance.

Answer 2

The word 'self' in a constructor represents the instance of a class. With this keyword, we can access the variables and functions inside a class. For example:

class foo:
    '''Just an example'''

    def __init__(self, person_name, person_age):
        self.name = person_name
        self.age = person_age
    
    def fun(self):
        ''' We include the word "self" inside the function as an object to invoke the 
            fun() inside the class.'''
        print("Name: {}".format(self.name))
        print("Age : {}".format(self.age))

    def display(self):
         ''' To display the name and age.'''
         self.fun()

class_object = foo("John Doe", 30)
# The word 'self' isn't required when calling the function outside the class.   
class_object.display()
# Name: John Doe
# Age : 30 

This doesn't mean that the word 'self' is a reserved keyword in python. We can use any other word to represent an instance of the class. For example:

class foo:
    '''Just an example again'''
   
    def __init__(fun, person_name, person_age):
        fun.name = person_name
        fun.age = person_age     

    def display(fun):
        print("Name: {}".format(fun.name))
        print("Age : {}".format(fun.age))

class_object = foo("John Doe", 30)
class_object.display()
# Name: John Doe
# Age : 30