object.__new__() takes no parameters

[lewashby]

In the following program, I'M getting the following error message when I try to run it.

TypeError: object.__new__() takes no parameters

# Classy Critter
# Demonstrates class attributes and static methods

class Critter(object):
    """A virtual pet"""
    total = 0
    
    
    def status():
        print "\nThe total number of critters is", Critter.total
        
        status = staticmethod(status)
        
        def __init__(self, name):
            print "A critter has been born!"
            
            self.name = name
            
            Critter.total += 1
            
            
# main

print "Accessing the class attribute Critter.total:",
print Critter.total

print "\nCreating critters."

crit1 = Critter("critter 1")
crit2 = Critter("critter 2")
crit3 = Critter("critter 3")

Critter.status()

print "\nAccessing the class attribute through an object:",
print crit1.total

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

Could someone please tell me what's going on? Thanks for any and all replies. This code is from the book Pythong programming for the absolute beginner".

[Gribouillis]

The indentation is bad. The code should read

# Classy Critter
# Demonstrates class attributes and static methods

class Critter(object):
    """A virtual pet"""
    total = 0
    
    
    def status():
        print "\nThe total number of critters is", Critter.total
        
    status = staticmethod(status)
        
    def __init__(self, name):
        print "A critter has been born!"
            
        self.name = name
            
        Critter.total += 1
            
            
# main

print "Accessing the class attribute Critter.total:",
print Critter.total

print "\nCreating critters."

crit1 = Critter("critter 1")
crit2 = Critter("critter 2")
crit3 = Critter("critter 3")

Critter.status()

print "\nAccessing the class attribute through an object:",
print crit1.total

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

About the error message: with your bad indentation, there was no __init__ method in class Critter. So the call crit1 = Critter("critter 1") passed the string argument "critter 1" to the object class, and finally to object.__new__ which creates a new object. Since python 3.0, this method does not accept any parameters but the calling class. Note that if you are using python >= 3, you must modify the print statements.

[lewashby]

The indentation is bad. The code should read

# Classy Critter
# Demonstrates class attributes and static methods

class Critter(object):
    """A virtual pet"""
    total = 0
    
    
    def status():
        print "\nThe total number of critters is", Critter.total
        
    status = staticmethod(status)
        
    def __init__(self, name):
        print "A critter has been born!"
            
        self.name = name
            
        Critter.total += 1
            
            
# main

print "Accessing the class attribute Critter.total:",
print Critter.total

print "\nCreating critters."

crit1 = Critter("critter 1")
crit2 = Critter("critter 2")
crit3 = Critter("critter 3")

Critter.status()

print "\nAccessing the class attribute through an object:",
print crit1.total

raw_input("\n\nPress the enter key to exit.")

About the error message: with your bad indentation, there was no __init__ method in class Critter. So the call crit1 = Critter("critter 1") passed the string argument "critter 1" to the object class, and finally to object.__new__ which creates a new object. Since python 3.0, this method does not accept any parameters but the calling class. Note that if you are using python >= 3, you must modify the print statements.

Thanks, that fixed that particular problem. But now I'M getting this error on line 33, by the way I'M using python 2.6

TypeError: unbound method status() must be called with Critter instance as first argument (got nothing instead)

[Gribouillis]

You probably still have the wrong indentation for the line
status = staticmethod(status).

[pythopian]

Better use a class method to access the class-level variables. Also, consider renaming "status" to "printStatus" as it more closely describes what the method does.

class Critter:
    ...
    @classmethod
    def printStatus(self, cls):
        print "\nThe total number of critters is", cls.total