Python: make private class methods always static if possible?

Question

I know it is good style in other languages (C#, JAVA, ...) to make "private" methods (using two underscores) static if possible. Is there any recommendation for Python?

I would rather not make them static, because they are only private (I don't want to move them to utility classes and they are not performance relevant) and I want to avoid cluttering my code with decorators. On the other hand, the static code analyzer tells me to do so (and I want to write code in the "Pythonic" way).

My personal opinion on this would be to not use static class methods unless needed, neither private nor public ones. Keep it simple. Unless it's a very small method that gets called vary often and is proved to slow down the entire program significantly, it makes no sense to optimize every tiny bit. — Byte Commander
– Byte Commander, Commented May 2, 2016 at 12:11

Webucator · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-10 14:35:28Z

2

The short answer is you should almost never use static methods in Python. They were added by mistake.

I meant to implement class methods but at first I didn't understand them and accidentally implemented static methods first. - Guido van Rossum

You can almost definitely achieve what you want with a class method or an instance method.

More on why static methods in Python are mostly useless here.

answered May 10, 2016 at 14:35

Webucator

2,7832 gold badges30 silver badges42 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

mister.elastic Over a year ago

Thanks a lot for this answer (incl. the useful links)!

sc3w · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-02 10:58:32Z

0

In python there is no such thing like 'private method', all methods are public. The only thing that tells you that a method is not intended to use publicly is that it's name starts with an underscore.

If your methods are not referencing anything from self (an instance of the class) then you could make them static to optimize the memory usage of your application.

answered May 2, 2016 at 10:58

sc3w

1,1641 gold badge9 silver badges21 bronze badges

2 Comments

mister.elastic Over a year ago

Thanks for the remark about private and public methods. Hence, I clarified the question.

sc3w Over a year ago

It's not very clear what would you like to achieve. If you don't want to make those methods static than ignore the warning from the static code analyzer,

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python: make private class methods always static if possible?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

2 Comments

Linked

Related