The class Statement

Although the Python class statement may seem similar to tools in other OOP languages on the surface, on closer inspection, it is quite different from what some programmers are used to. For example, as in C++, the class statement is Python’s main OOP tool, but unlike in C++, Python’s class is not a declaration. Like a def, a class statement is an object builder, and an implicit assignment—when run, it generates a class object and stores a reference to it in the name used in the header. Also like a def, a class statement is true executable code—your class doesn’t exist until Python reaches and runs the class statement that defines it (typically while importing the module it is coded in, but not before).