I am working through the Python Institute’s free courses in preparation for the certifications they offer. These cover material in a logical, structured fashion. I needed this review since my Python skills were acquired ad hoc over 5 years and, as a result, there are some small gaps in my knowledge of certain fundamentals.
Today I read a statement (repeated from earlier in the course) where it states:
“a method is obliged to have at least one parameter“
Python Institute – Python Essentials – Part 2, 6.1.4.1 OOP: Methods
This seems incorrect to me. When the @staticmethod decorator is prefixed to a method declaration, the required self parameter is no longer necessary. I’ve used this quite a few times in my code. However, the trade-off is that when this decorator is used, the ability to access instance variables is completely negated. A nice but brief article is written about this and the @classmethod decorator on StackAbuse.
Mistakes such as these do not dissuade me from continuing the coursework in the Python Institute. It is still effective in providing me with pertinent knowledge.
