Magic Methods

Defintion

Special methods that are represented in python with double underscores on either side

examples:

__init__()
__lt__

Use cases

• Construction and initialization
  • __new__(cls, [...) creates new instance of class, used rarely, under the hood stuff
  • __init__ initializer for the class. It gets passed whatever the primary constructor was called with
  • __del__ destructor of the object, almost never used so use with caution
• Comparison
  • __cmp__(self, other) implements comparison for all the operators. Usually want to implement them one by one
  • __eq__(self, other) equality
  • __ne__(self, other) inequality
  • __lt__(self, other) less-than
  • __gt__(self, other) greater-than
  • __le__(self, other) less-than-or-equal-to
  • __ge__(self, other) greater-than-or-equal-to
• Numeric
  • …
• Representation
  • __str__(self) defines behavior for when str(class) is called

Source

https://rszalski.github.io/magicmethods/