Does Python have “private” variables in classes?

Question

I\'m coming from the Java world and reading Bruce Eckels\' Python 3 Patterns, Recipes and Idioms.

While reading about classes, it goes on to say that in Py

Answer 1

There is a variation of private variables in the underscore convention.

In [5]: class Test(object):
   ...:     def __private_method(self):
   ...:         return "Boo"
   ...:     def public_method(self):
   ...:         return self.__private_method()
   ...:     

In [6]: x = Test()

In [7]: x.public_method()
Out[7]: 'Boo'

In [8]: x.__private_method()
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
 in ()
----> 1 x.__private_method()

AttributeError: 'Test' object has no attribute '__private_method'

There are some subtle differences, but for the sake of programming pattern ideological purity, its good enough.

There are examples out there of @private decorators that more closely implement the concept, but YMMV. Arguably one could also write a class defintion that uses meta