Python Modules, passing values to args

Question

Im learning python and am currently trying to pass values from input to the args for a module I wrote but I have no idea how to start.

Can someone give me some advice?

This is the module im calling

#!/usr/bin/python
class Employee:
 'Practice class'
 empCount = 0
 def __init__(self, salary):
 self.salary = salary
 Employee.empCount += 1
 def displayCount(self):
 print "Total Employees %d" % Employee.empCount
 def displayEmployee(self):
 print "Salary: ", self.salary
class Att(Employee):
 'Defines attributes for Employees'
 def __init__(self, Age, Name, Sex):
 self.Age = Age
 self.Name = Name
 self.Sex = Sex
 def display(self):
 print "Name: ", self.Name + "\nAge: ", self.Age, "\nSex: ", self.Sex

This is the code im using to call and pass the values to the args in the above module

#!/usr/bin/python
import Employee
def Collection1():
 while True:
 Employee.Age = int(raw_input("How old are you? "))
 if Employee.Age == str(Employee.Age):
 print "You entered " + Employee.Age + " Please enter a number"
 elif Employee.Age > 10:
 break
 elif Employee.Age > 100:
 print "Please enter a sensible age"
 else:
 print "Please enter an age greater than 10"
 return str(Employee.Age)
def Collection2():
 Employee.Name = raw_input("What is your name? ")
 return Employee.Name
def Collection3():
 while True:
 Employee.Sex = str(raw_input("Are you a man or a woman? "))
 if Employee.Sex == "man":
 Employee.Sex = "man"
 return Employee.Sex
 break
 elif Employee.Sex == "woman":
 Employee.Sex = "woman"
 return Employee.Sex
 break
 else:
 print "Please enter man or woman "
Attributes = Employee.Employee()
Collection1()
Collection2()
Collection3()
Attributes.displayEmployee()

Im guessing I need to take the input from the user and place it in the variables of the class. I tried that but im guessing im doing everything wrong??

• Eric: Capitalized member/module/variable/function names are unpythonic. The only capitalized words in your code should be Employee and Att
• Eric: And Employee.Age == str(Employee.Age) will always be false - an integer never equals its string representation.

Answer 1

Employee.Age = int(raw_input("How old are you? ")) There's no use to setting a variable in the module instead of using a local variable, and setting whatever you need to set outside the Collection1() function. Note that you are not setting the employee (object) atributes', but the module's - this is probably not what you want. Also, functions, by convention, should be named with initial lowercase.

Your inheritance model is a bit strange. Why are the employee attributes in a different (sub) class? Generally, the attributes go into the main class constructor. If you really want to use a separate class for the attributes, you shouldn't use a subclass at all in this case.

EDIT Here's what I think you meant to do:

#!/usr/bin/python
class Employee:
 def __init__(self, salary, age, name, sex):
 self.salary = salary
 self.age= age
 self.name= name
 self.sex= sex
 #Employee.empCount += 1 #don't do this. you should count instances OUTSIDE
 def __str__(self):
 return "Employee<Name: {0}, Age: {1}, Sex: {2}, Salary: {3}>".format( self.name, self.age, self.sex, self.salary)
def getAge():
 while True:
 try:
 s=raw_input("How old are you? ")
 age = int(s)
 if age > 100:
 print "Please enter a sensible age"
 elif age<=10:
 print "Please enter an age greater than 10"
 else:
 return age
 except ValueError:
 print "You entered " + s + " Please enter a number"
def getName():
 return raw_input("What is your name? ")
def getSex():
 while True:
 sex = str(raw_input("Are you a man or a woman? "))
 if not sex in ("man", "woman"):
 print "Please enter man or woman "
 else:
 return sex
age= getAge()
name= getName()
sex= getSex()
salary=100000
employee = Employee(salary, age, name, sex)
print employee

if you want the Employee in a different file (module), just put it there and from your main code run from Employee import Employee (the first is the module, the second is the class).

• k3eper: Hi, thanks for the response. The modules are abit strange as I built one class for practice the created another to practice inheritance etc. Could you give me an example bit of code on how I set the args values for the module?
• k3eper: Can anyone help me out with what im trying to acheive? How do i make the raw_input data into an arg for the module im calling?
• loopbackbee: @k3eper check answer edit. Also, for future questions like this, you should use codereview.stackexchange.com
• k3eper: thanks @goncalopp can you please explain this to me def __str__(self): ?
• k3eper: I also notice the "print employee" line refers to the def __str__(self):, how does it know to print that line if you didnt refer to it by its name __str__(self): I know these must be stupid questions but I really do want to understand and learn python.