How to implement string in python class?

Question

I'm working on a problem called "Employee Class" and mostly thru it but it's not printing what I want. This is my program:

from EmployeeDefinition import *
def main():
 
 emplo1 = Employee('Susan Meyers', '47899',
 'Accounting', 'Vice President')
 emplo2 = Employee('Mark Jones', '39119',
 'IT', 'Programmer')
 emplo3 = Employee('Joy Rogers', '81774',
 'Manufacturing', 'Engineer')
 print(f"Employee 1:{emplo1}\n")
 print(f"Employee 2:{emplo2}\n")
 print(f"Employee 3:{emplo3}\n")
if __name__ == '__main__':
 main()

and this is the file with my class in it:

class Employee:
 __empName = "-na-"
 __idNumber = '0'
 __department = "-na-"
 __title = "-na-"
 
 def __init__(self, inp_empName, inp_idNumber, inp_dept, inp_title):
 self.__empName = inp_empName
 self.__idNumber = inp_idNumber
 self.__department = inp_dept
 self.__title = inp_title
 def setEmpName(self, inp_empName):
 self.__empName = inp_empName
 def setIdNumber(self, inp_idNumber):
 self.__idNumber = inp_idNumber
 def setDepartment(self, inp_dept):
 self.__department = inp_dept
 def setTitle(self, inp_title):
 self.__title = inp_title
 
 def getEmpName(self):
 return self.__empName
 
 def getIdNumber(self):
 return self.__idNumber
 
 def getDepartment(self):
 return self.__department
 def getTitle(self):
 return self.__title

I know I need to implement a string but I'm stuck.

Answer 1

You need to define the __str__ method in your employee class. This tells the compiler how to output your class as a string instead of the object hash.

class Employee:
 def __str__(self):
 return f"{self.__empName}, {self.__idNumber}, {self.__department}, {self.__title}"

Answer 2

The double underscore you're using in your class usually denotes that it's a private variable/attribute. Example:

def __init__(self, inp_empName, inp_idNumber, inp_dept, inp_title):
 self.empName = inp_empName
 self.idNumber = inp_idNumber
 self.department = inp_dept
 self.title = inp_title

If you simply remove those underscores, you can call the string like this:

print(f"Employee 1:{emplo1.empName}\n")

If you want to call those attributes outside of the class, then they're public versus private, so the double underscore is unnecessary.