Python Classes and Recursion Flashcards
object
In programming, an object is a grouping of data (variables) and operations that can be performed on that data (functions or methods).
encapsulation
aka Abstraction / information hiding
when a user interacts with an object at a high level, allowing lower-level internal details to remain hidden (aka information hiding or encapsulation).
abstract data type / ADT
An abstract data type (ADT) is a data type whose creation and update are constrained to specific well-defined operations.
built-in
objects that Python automatically creates for a programmer to use and include the basic data types like integers and strings.
class
used to create a user-defined type of object containing groups of related variables and functions.
attributes
determines the data and behavior of the class for objects.
instantiation
Defining a new class variable by ‘calling’ the class, using parentheses like a function call as in my_time = Time().
instance
an individual object of the given class.
method
A method is a function defined within a class.
constructor
__init__
responsible for setting up the initial state of the new instance.
attribute reference operator /
member operator /
dot notation
Attributes can be accessed using the attribute reference operator ‘.’ (sometimes called the member operator or dot notation).
instance method
A function defined within a class is known as an instance method.
special method name
A special method name, indicating that the method implements some special behavior of the class, identified with the double underscore
__init__ - initializer/constructor
class object
A class object acts as a factory that creates instance objects.
instance object
When created by the class object, an instance object is initialized via the __init__ method.
class attribute
A class attribute is shared among all instances of that class.
instance attribute
An instance attribute can be unique to each instance.
class interface
A class interface consists of the methods that a programmer calls to create, modify, or access a class instance.
abstract data type (ADT)
A class can be used to implement the computing concept known as an abstract data type (ADT), whose creation and update are constrained to specific, well-defined operations (the class interface).
Class customization
Class customization is the process of defining how an instance of a class should behave for some common operations. Such operations might include printing, accessing attributes, or how instances of that class are compared to each other.
special method names
To customize a class, a programmer implements instance methods with special method names that the Python interpreter recognizes.
operator overloading
Class customization can redefine the functionality of built-in operators like <, >=, +, -, and * when used with class instances, a technique known as operator overloading.
rich comparison methods
Methods like __lt__ above are known as rich comparison methods.
isinstance()
To handle subtraction of arbitrary object types, the built-in isinstance() function can be used.
memory allocation
The process of an application requesting and being granted memory is known as memory allocation.
Memory deallocation
Memory deallocation is the act of freeing the memory that stores variables or objects in a program.
reference count
A reference count is an integer counter that represents how many variables reference an object.
recursive function
A function that calls itself is known as a recursive function.
base case
The recursive function has an if-else statement, where the if branch is the end of the recursion, known as the base case. The else part has the recursive calls.
depth
The depth of recursion is a measure of how many recursive calls of a function have been made, but have not yet returned.
