Recipes: Classes and objects

Short, task-focused how-tos for specific things you'll want to do when working with classes. Each recipe assumes you already know the basics — if a term surprises you, the Learn section is one click away.

Unlike the tutorials, the recipes don't have a recommended order. Pick whichever is useful right now.

Recipes in this guide

• Choose between @dataclass, NamedTuple, and a plain class — a decision guide for the three ways to define a record-like type.
• Validate attributes on assignment — using __post_init__ and @property setters to enforce invariants.
• Make a class iterable or container-like — implementing __iter__, __getitem__, __len__, and __contains__.
• Avoid common class mistakes — mutable class attributes, deep inheritance, super() ordering, and other traps.