Question

How do I create class (i.e. static) variables or methods in Python?

Answer 1

Variables declared inside the class definition, but not inside a method are class or static variables:

>>> class MyClass: ...     i = 3 ... >>> MyClass.i 3  

As @millerdev points out, this creates a class-level i variable, but this is distinct from any instance-level i variable, so you could have

>>> m = MyClass() >>> m.i = 4 >>> MyClass.i, m.i >>> (3, 4) 

This is different from C++ and Java, but not so different from C#, where a static member can’t be accessed using a reference to an instance.

See what the Python tutorial has to say on the subject of classes and class objects.

@Steve Johnson has already answered regarding static methods, also documented under "Built-in Functions" in the Python Library Reference.

class C:     @staticmethod     def f(arg1, arg2, ...): ... 

@beidy recommends classmethods over staticmethod, as the method then receives the class type as the first argument.