this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
20 points (100.0% liked)

Learn Programming

1624 readers
1 users here now

Posting Etiquette

  1. Ask the main part of your question in the title. This should be concise but informative.

  2. Provide everything up front. Don't make people fish for more details in the comments. Provide background information and examples.

  3. Be present for follow up questions. Don't ask for help and run away. Stick around to answer questions and provide more details.

  4. Ask about the problem you're trying to solve. Don't focus too much on debugging your exact solution, as you may be going down the wrong path. Include as much information as you can about what you ultimately are trying to achieve. See more on this here: https://xyproblem.info/

Icon base by Delapouite under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Ategon@programming.dev
JaumeI@programming.dev
bugsmith@programming.dev
20
Classes and objects. Just started learning, working in python. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by joshthewaster@lemmy.world to c/learn_programming@programming.dev
4 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

So I have struggled with classes and objects but think I'm starting to get it...? As part of a short online class I made a program that asked a few multiple choice questions and returns a score. To do this there are a few parts.

  1. Define some inputs as lists of strings ((q, a), (q2, a2),...). The lists contain the questions and answers. This will be used as input and allows an easy way to change questions, add them, whatever.

  2. Create a class that takes in the list and creates objects - the objects are a question and it's answer.

  3. Create a new list that uses that class to store the objects.

  4. Define a function that iterates over the list full of question/answer objects, and then asks the user the questions and tallies the score.

Number 2 is really what I am wondering about, is that generally what a class and object are? I would use an analogy of a factory being a class. It takes in raw materials (or pre-made parts) and builds them into standard objects. Is this a reasonable analogy of what a class is?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Classes are like definitions for what objects look like. A lot of times people will use the terms interchangably in non formal settings.

It so happens that the class they want you to make is like a factory, but not all classes are like that. They can do anything. It's just a different way to organize your code. Languages like C don't have classes and you can write Python code without classes. There is a concept called the "factory pattern" (not going to bore you with the details) but suffice to say, it's a very common thing so your analogy is correct -- but as long as you remember not all classes behave like that, just this specific one.