Explaining the ‘self’ variable to a beginner [duplicate]

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I’ll try to clear up some confusion about classes and objects for you first. Lets look at this block of code:

>>> class Bank(): # let's create a bank, building ATMs
...    crisis = False
...    def create_atm(self) :
...        while not self.crisis :
...            yield "$100"

The comment there is a bit deceptive. The above code does not “create” a bank. It defines what a bank is. A bank is something which has a property called crisis, and a function create_atm. That’s what the above code says.

Now let’s actually create a bank:

>>> x = Bank()

There, x is now a bank. x has a property crisis and a function create_atm. Calling x.create_atm(); in python is the same as calling Bank.create_atm(x);, so now self refers to x. If you add another bank called y, calling y.create_atm() will know to look at y‘s value of crisis, not x‘s since in that function self refers to y.

self is just a naming convention, but it is very good to stick with it. It’s still worth pointing out that the code above is equivalent to:

>>> class Bank(): # let's create a bank, building ATMs
...    crisis = False
...    def create_atm(thisbank) :
...        while not thisbank.crisis :
...            yield "$100"

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