Using user input in classes

Question

I have only been programming for about a month and my question is this. Once I am done in the class defining the functions and class, how can I use the user input with the functions. Any help is appreciated the can shed a little light.

class employee:


    def __init__(self,first,last,pay,hours):
        self.first = raw_input("whats your first name")
        self.last = raw_input("whats your last name") 
        self.pay = int(input("how much do you make an hour"))
        self.hours = int(input("how many hours do you have"))



        def raise_amount(self, amount):
            self.pay = int(input('how much would you like to raise the employee pay'))



    def overtime(self,overtime):
        if self.hours !=39:
            print ("there is an error you have overtime standby")
            num1 = self.pay / 2
            overtime = num1 + self.pay
            print self.first, + self.overtime(self.hours)



print employee(self.hours)

Answer 1

As it stands this class does not make a lot of sense, particularly this bit:

class employee:

    def __init__(self,first,last,pay,hours):
        self.first = raw_input("whats your first name")
        self.last = raw_input("whats your last name") 
        self.pay = int(input("how much do you make an hour"))
        self.hours = int(input("how many hours do you have"))

By giving __init__ four arguments (in addition to self), it means that when you instantiate the class (via my_employee = employee(...)), you will have to pass all of those arguments, i.e. in your code you have to write my_employee = employee("John", "Cleese", "£2", "5 hours"). But that's pointless, because the __init__ function then completely ignores all of that information when it sets the attributes of the class, and instead uses user input. You just want to do this:

class employee:

    def __init__(self):
        self.first = raw_input("whats your first name")
        self.last = raw_input("whats your last name") 
        self.pay = int(input("how much do you make an hour"))
        self.hours = int(input("how many hours do you have"))

    ...

my_employee = employee()

It would be better however to create a general employee class, and then in circumstances where you need to create an employee via input, you can still do so. Specifically:

class Employee:
    def __init__(self, first, last, pay, hours):
        self.first = first
        self.last = last
        self.pay = pay
        self.hours = hours

    ...

your_employee = Employee(input("First name: "), input("Last name: "),
    int(input("Pay: ")), int(input("Hours: ")))