Mastering Python Networking - Second Edition

Python classes

Python is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language. The way Python creates objects is with the class keyword. A Python object is most commonly a collection of functions (methods), variables, and attributes (properties). Once a class is defined, you can create instances of such a class. The class serves as a blueprint for subsequent instances.

The topic of OOP is outside the scope of this chapter, so here is a simple example of a router object definition:

>>> class router(object):...   def __init__(self, name, interface_number,vendor):...     self.name = name...     self.interface_number = interface_number...     self.vendor = vendor...>>>

Once defined, you are able to create as many instances of that class as you'd like:

>>> r1 = router("SFO1-R1", ...