Question

EDIT2: Thank you all for your help!
EDIT: on adding @staticmethod, it works. However I am still wondering why i am getting a type error here.

I have just started OOPS and am completely new to it. I have a very basic question regarding the different ways I can call a function from a class.
I have a testClass.py file with the code:

class MathsOperations:
    def __init__ (self, x, y):
        self.a = x
        self.b = y
    def testAddition (self):
        return (self.a + self.b)

    def testMultiplication (self):
        return (self.a * self.b)

I am calling this class from another file called main.py with the following code:

from testClass import MathsOperations

xyz = MathsOperations(2, 3)
print xyz.testAddition()

This works without any issues. However, I wanted to use the class in a much simpler way.

I have now put the following code in the testClass.py file. I have dropped the init function this time.

class MathsOperations:
    def testAddition (x, y):
        return x + y

    def testMultiplication (a, b):
        return a * b

calling this using;

from testClass import MathsOperations
xyz = MathsOperations()
print xyz.testAddition(2, 3)

this doesn’t works. Can someone explain what is happening wrongly in case 2? How do I use this class?

The error i get is “TypeError: testAddition() takes exactly 2 arguments (3 given)”

Answer 1

you have to use self as the first parameters of a method

in the second case you should use

class MathOperations:
    def testAddition (self,x, y):
        return x + y

    def testMultiplication (self,a, b):
        return a * b

and in your code you could do the following

tmp = MathOperations()
print tmp.testAddition(2,3)

if you use the class without instantiating a variable first

print MathOperation.testAddtion(2,3)

it gives you an error "TypeError: unbound method"

if you want to do that you will need the @staticmethod decorator

For example:

class MathsOperations:
    @staticmethod
    def testAddition (x, y):
        return x + y

    @staticmethod
    def testMultiplication (a, b):
        return a * b

then in your code you could use

print MathsOperations.testAddition(2,3)