Question

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What is the difference between @staticmethod and @classmethod in Python?

• I am learning OOP in python and came to know about these two methods
• It seems that the difference in terms of syntax is that class methods are implicitly passed the class they belong to as their first parameter

class Circle:
  all_circles = [] # class variable

  @staticmethod
  def total_area():
      for c in Circle.all_circles: # hardcode class name
          # do somethig

  @classmethod
  def total_area(cls):
      for c in cls.all_circles: # no hardcode class name
          # do something

I see class method as more flexible since we don’t hardcode the class

Question:
– Is it even a question which one is better? @staticmethod or @classmethod?
– what are the scenarios suitable to use of each one of these methods?

Answer 1

A classmethod gets passed the class ‘cls’ that it was called upon. For more details see: What is the difference between @staticmethod and @classmethod in Python?