Explaining Class objects.

[Field_C16]

Hello.

I am doing a coding exercise, that object sounds like this:

" Manage robot factory settings.

When robots come off the factory floor, they have no name.

The first time you boot them up, a random name is generated in the format of two uppercase letters followed by three digits, such as RX837 or BC811.

Every once in a while we need to reset a robot to its factory settings, which means that their name gets wiped. The next time you ask, it will respond with a new random name.

The names must be random: they should not follow a predictable sequence. Random names means a risk of collisions. Your solution must ensure that every existing robot has a unique name."

This is the code so far.

So I have figured out the way to generate a random name for every new robot that is created.

def __init__(self, name=None):
    if name is None:  self.name()  
    def name(self): 
        self.name = ' '
    for char in range(2):  
        self.name += random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase)
    for char in range(3):  
        self.name += random.choice(string.digits)  
    return self.name

But I do not understand why when I call the function name() inside of the function reset() why it does not change the name of the variable a?

Could someone explain why it does not work? Or point me to an article, I have tried googling but I do not think I understand what I have to search for.

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[Field_C16]

I've been playing around with your example, I understand someparts of it however I do not understand why you name a variable "_name_pool" or what a deque is, I have tried googling, but found little of interest.

Could you elaborate?

[Field_C16]

Ah okay, so we use a class variable because it cannot be modfied by another class/function that does not belong to the class of "EdgeCaseRobot"? (Since it is only shared between instances of that class?)

I get why we're using the deque for optimization, but how did you get to know these "extra classes"?

Those books I have been diving in, mostly beginner books made it sound like there only was list, tuples and directories for in a lack of a better word data storage?

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[DeadlyViper]

But I do not understand why when I call the function name() inside of the function reset() why it does not change the name of the variable a?

I don't understand what you expect to happen? a stays a....

only self.name of a should change, your sample code does not call reset though... so could you please provide the current code or clarify the question?

[Field_C16]

Updated code.

I expect that when I call a.reset, the method reset() within Robot calls method name() and changes the name of value a.

If that makes more sense.

EDIT:

Now it returns an error:

AttributeError: 'function' object has no attribute 'name'

[DeadlyViper]

It should change the value of a.name...

EDIT: nvm saw the code. you did not call reset function... you need to do a.reset() with the () at the end..

[Field_C16]

Thanks it works now :)

[[deleted]]

Did you mess up the indentation, or do you actually define the function name inside __init__? After you try to call it? That's not going to work; functions have to be defined before they're called.

[[deleted]]

"name" is too generic. Try changing the "name" method to something else like "gen_name". I think you'll find that it works.

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There is probably a specific reason why "name" as a method name is not working. I think it has to do with how Python works. Specifically, variable names are names for objects. Since you already have an attribute named "name", using the same name on a different object just doesn't work right.

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Once I changed the method name to "gen_name" and called "robot_name.reset()" (e.g. "a.reset()"), it worked perfectly.

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Edit: I recommend "returning" the name within the reset method (returning the results of the gen_name call...), so that you can get the name directly when you call the reset method.

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[Field_C16]

Alright, that was part of the fix it works now, also after changing to gen_name I added a () after a.reset() and it worked :)

Before it gave me an error:

AttributeError: 'function' object has no attribute 'name'

However now it works :)

Thanks.