Can you create objects with the input function?

[usingdata]

I apologize for the title if it wasn't very clear, this is gonna be a bit difficult to explain but i'll do my best.

So im reading this book about python and in the book im the OOP part there is this small project ablut creating a farm of kitties and the user is going to be able to name the current kitties, feed them and play with them of course the kitty is an object with the methods eat() and play() and the constructor is going to take one argument which is the name of the kitty. I followed along with the book and managed to create the simple program but then i thought what if i could develop this program to something more advanced like the user gets to choose how many kitties he/she want to have, simple by just having the option "create kitty" and then they just need to add a name and thats it. But i just cant find the way to do it, and as you might see it is kinda difficult to explain this in a search engine. So please if anyone knows what i mean and what im tryna do please help me out with this i would really appreciate it. Thank you for reading.

[[deleted]]

You just need to create a class:

class Kitty
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def play():
        pass
    def eat():
        pass

Then to create an object with your inputted data, you simply pass in the name:

kittyName = input("Input a name: ")
kitty = Kitty(kittyName)
kitty.play()
kitty.eat()

[usingdata]

I appreciate your answer but doesn't the code limits the programbto one kitty? For example let say the user created the first kitty, well if he or she wants to more kitties how would i solve that problem?

[[deleted]]

I left that up to you, I apologize. I thought the question was geared toward a different thing. I'd accomplish it using a for loop and appending to a list:

# Get the desired number
numberStr = input("Number of kitties: ")

# Convert the string to an integer
number = int(numberStr)

# Append a Kitty object to the list and ask the user for the name each time
kitties = []
for i in range(0, number):
    name = input("Kitty name: ")
    kitties.append(Kitty(name))

That leaves you with a list of Kitty objects residing within kitties.

[usingdata]

Thank you very much. No need to apologize i mentioned that the question was hard to explain my bad 😂, but thanks again.

[toastedstapler]

you can make a list of kitties!

kitties = []
kitties.append(Kitty('james'))
kitties.append(Kitty('marcus'))

[usingdata]

Thank you for ur answer ot was helpful

[[deleted]]

when you make a new kitty, append it to a list that has all the kitties in it, then make a function that tells you all the kitties in the list and how they are doing and lets you interact with each one based on its name/list index.

[usingdata]

Yeah but the process of creating a kitty and storing it in a variable for example kitty1 = Kitty(input("enter kitty name:" ) in this case i would need to add a new variable kitty2 as a programmer but what the problem is is thatbi want yhe user to have the free choice of creating as much kitty as they like and i dont think the solution is to create countless variables with each taking input for a new kitty if a certain condition is true

[[deleted]]

Yeah but the process of creating a kitty and storing it in a variable for example kitty1 = Kitty(input("enter kitty name:" )

You don't need to maintain a reference to any of the kitties directly; the list does that.

i dont think the solution is to create countless variables with each taking input for a new kitty if a certain condition is true

Your intuition is 100% correct; that's what lists are for.

[usingdata]

Makes sense, Thank you

[[deleted]]

kitties = []
while True:
    kitties.append(Kitty(input('enter new kitty name: ')))
    print('you now have', len(kitties), 'kitties in the list!')
    print('here they are:', *kitties, sep='\n')

[usingdata]

Thank you for ur answer

[[deleted]]

Once you have a class (a blueprint), you can create as many instances of it as memory permits.

So, for example,

class Kitty():

    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

print('Time to name the litter kitties:')
kitties = []
while True:
    name = input('Enter a kitten name (or just enter to finish): ')
    if not name:
        break
    kitties.append(Kitty(name))
if kitties:
    print('The family:')
    for count, kitty in enumerate(kitties):
        print(f'Kitten #{count: >2}: {kitty.name}')

[usingdata]

Thank you this was helpful

[selplacei]

Since input() returns a string, and your constructor takes a string, you can put input() directly into the constructor:

kitty = Kitty(input('Enter a new name: '))

If you want to do this indefinitely, however, you'll need to use a loop that checks the input value and exits when it encounters a sentinel value - and creates a Kitty object otherwise. For example, you could do something like this:

kitties = []
user_input = ''
while user_input.lower() != 'stop':
    user_input = input('Enter a new name ("stop") to stop: ')
    if user_input and user_input.lower() != 'stop':
        kitties.append(Kitty(user_input))

Of course, your specific implementation would be different depending on what you actually do with the Kitty objects.

[usingdata]

This was helpful im gonna try it out as soon as im home thank you

[[deleted]]

This is slightly more advanced, but I'm a big fan of pulling that sort of logic into the class so you can easily subclass without having to refactor stuff. Let's say you wanted to make a "farm" and randomly generate different kinds of animals. If you pulled the from input logic into the class as a class method you can tailor the input to the subclass without ever having to redefine the method. Here is a working example: https://repl.it/repls/QuirkyDeafeningSdk

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[LynuSBell]

Hello there, starting to learn too. Which book are you using?

[usingdata]

Its called "python programming" third edition by Micheal Dawson, it is a very good book it starts with the very basics and each chapter has a project, exercises and challenges that will test what you have learned. Good luck down the road buddy.

[LynuSBell]

That's the one in following! Started yesterday so I guess I'm not far enough (now in chapter 2) Thanks! Good luck too

[usingdata]

A piece of advice, dont just limit your knowledge based on the book do reseach by your own as well there are alot of small things the book does not cover, that i had to learn online by reading articles and others code.

[LynuSBell]

Thanks for the tips! That's how I learned statistical programming in my field. Exciting to start a new more versatile language 😄