class variable scope

[lewashby]

    class MemberCounter:
        members = 0
        def init(self):
            MemberCounter.members += 1



# m1 = MemberCounter()
# m1.init()
# MemberCounter.members
-> 1

# m2 = MemberCounter()
# m2.init()
# MemberCounter.members
-> 2

# m1.members
-> 2

#m2.members
-> 2

# m1.members = 'Two'
# m1.members
-> 'Two'

# m2.members
-> 2

In the above code how is it that in the upper portion m1 and m2 are sharing the same members variable but after I re-assign m1 to 'Two' and are suddenly two different variables? Also, what is init?

[woooee]

You are printing separate variables. MemberCounter.members is different from m1.members="Two". Print the id() of each, which will show that they all occupy different memory locations. You might also want to study up on the difference between class objects/attributes and instance objects/attributes Click Here Sometimes you are printing an instance object and sometimes you are printing a class object, which are different variables even though they have the same name. m2 does not have an instance object named "members" so it prints the class object. If you created one
m2.members="Three"
it would print that instead, and
MemberCounter.members will always print the class object.

[lewashby]

Thanks, I'm reading up on that page now.