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

Python does not have any private variables like C++ or Java does. You could access any member variable at any time if wanted, too. However, you don't need private variables in Python, because in Python it is not bad to expose your classes member variables. If you have the need to encapsulate a member variable, you can do this by using "@property" later on without breaking existing client code.

In python the single underscore "_" is used to indicate, that a method or variable is not considered as part of the public api of a class and that this part of the api could change between different versions. You can use these methods/variables, but your code could break, if you use a newer version of this class.

The double underscore "__" does not mean a "private variable". You use it to define variables which are "class local" and which can not be easily overidden by subclasses. It mangles the variables name.

For example:

class A(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.__foobar = None # will be automatically mangled to self._A__foobar

class B(A):
    def __init__(self):
        self.__foobar = 1 # will be automatically mangled to self._B__foobar

self.__foobar's name is automatically mangled to self._A__foobar in class A. In class B it is mangled to self._B__foobar. So every subclass can define its own variable __foobar without overriding its parents variable(s). But nothing prevents you from accessing variables beginning with double underscores. However, name-mangling prevents you from calling this variables /methods incidentally.

I strongly recommend to watch Raymond Hettingers talk "Pythons class development toolkit" from Pycon 2013 (should be available on Youtube), which gives a good example why and how you should use @property and "__"-instance variables.

If you have exposed public variables and you have the need to encapsulate them, then you can use @property. Therefore you can start with the simplest solution possible. You can leave member variables public unless you have a concrete reason to not do so. Here is an example:

class Distance:
    def __init__(self, meter):
        self.meter = meter


d = Distance(1.0)
print(d.meter)
# prints 1.0

class Distance:
    def __init__(self, meter):
        # Customer request: Distances must be stored in millimeters.
        # Public available internals must be changed.
        # This would break client code in C++.
        # This is why you never expose public variables in C++ or Java.
        # However, this is python.
        self.millimeter = meter * 1000

    # In python we have @property to the rescue.
    @property
    def meter(self):
        return self.millimeter *0.001

    @meter.setter
    def meter(self, value):
        self.millimeter = meter * 1000

d = Distance(1.0)
print(d.meter)
# prints 1.0