Difference between method types in Python - Hands-On Comparison

Difference between method types

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are creating a simple program to manage a library. You want to understand how different types of methods work in a class to organize your code better.

🎯 Goal: You will create a class with instance, class, and static methods to see how each method type behaves and how to call them.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a class called Library with an instance method, a class method, and a static method.

Use self for the instance method parameter.

Use cls for the class method parameter.

Call each method correctly and print their outputs.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Understanding method types helps organize code in programs like library systems, games, or business apps.

💼 Career

Knowing method types is essential for writing clean, maintainable code in software development jobs.

1

Create the Library class with an instance method

Create a class called Library. Inside it, write an instance method called instance_method that takes self and returns the string "This is an instance method."

Python

class Library:
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Remember, instance methods always have self as the first parameter.

2

Add a class method to Library

Add a class method called class_method to the Library class. It should take cls as a parameter and return the string "This is a class method." Use the @classmethod decorator.

Python

class Library:
    def instance_method(self):
        return "This is an instance method."

    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use @classmethod above the method and cls as the first parameter.

3

Add a static method to Library

Add a static method called static_method to the Library class. It should take no parameters and return the string "This is a static method." Use the @staticmethod decorator.

Python

class Library:
    def instance_method(self):
        return "This is an instance method."

    @classmethod
    def class_method(cls):
        return "This is a class method."

    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Static methods do not take self or cls as parameters.

4

Call and print all three methods

Create an object called lib from the Library class. Then print the result of calling the instance method instance_method on lib, the class method class_method on Library, and the static method static_method on Library.

Python

class Library:
    def instance_method(self):
        return "This is an instance method."

    @classmethod
    def class_method(cls):
        return "This is a class method."

    @staticmethod
    def static_method():
        return "This is a static method."

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Remember to create an object to call the instance method, but call class and static methods directly on the class.