What is a Class Constructor?

In this lesson, we will gain a deeper understanding of the class constructor, building on what we previously learned.

A constructor is a special method that runs automatically when an object is created from a class. It sets the initial state of the object.

In Python, a constructor is defined as __init__, which stands for Initialization, and it is referred to as the constructor method or initialization method.

The self used as the first argument in the __init__ method refers to the current instance of the class.

Notice that there are two underscores (_) before and after init, making a total of four underscores.

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class Product:
    def __init__(self, name, category, price):
        self.name = name           # Product name
        self.category = category   # Product category
        self.price = price         # Price

    def get_product_info(self):
        return f"{self.category}: {self.name} - ${self.price}"

# Creating an object and printing information
product1 = Product("Earphones", "Electronics", 85)
print(product1.get_product_info())
# Electronics: Earphones - $85

The code example above defines the Product class and initializes the product name (name), product category (category), and price (price) through the __init__ method.

The get_product_info method returns the product information as a string using the attributes of the object.

When an object is created, its attributes are initialized with the arguments passed to the __init__ method, and its information is printed using the get_product_info method.