In Python, I’m trying to run a method in a class and I get an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\domenico\Desktop\py\main.py", line 8, in <module>
    fibo.f()
  TypeError: unbound method f() must be called with fibo instance 
  as first argument (got nothing instead)

Code: (swineflu.py)

class fibo:
    a=0
    b=0

    def f(self,a=0):
        print fibo.b+a
        b=a;
        return self(a+1)

Script main.py

import swineflu

f = swineflu
fibo = f.fibo

fibo.f()            #TypeError is thrown here

What does this error mean? What is causing this error?

OK, first of all, you don’t have to get a reference to the module into a different name; you already have a reference (from the import) and you can just use it. If you want a different name just use import swineflu as f.

Second, you are getting a reference to the class rather than instantiating the class.

So this should be:

import swineflu

fibo = swineflu.fibo()  # get an instance of the class
fibo.f()                # call the method f of the instance

A bound method is one that is attached to an instance of an object. An unbound method is, of course, one that is not attached to an instance. The error usually means you are calling the method on the class rather than on an instance, which is exactly what was happening in this case because you hadn’t instantiated the class.

How to reproduce this error with as few lines as possible:

>>> class C:
...   def f(self):
...     print "hi"
...
>>> C.f()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unbound method f() must be called with C instance as 
first argument (got nothing instead)

It fails because of TypeError because you didn’t instantiate the class first, you have two choices: 1: either make the method static so you can run it in a static way, or 2: instantiate your class so you have an instance to grab onto, to run the method.

It looks like you want to run the method in a static way, do this:

>>> class C:
...   @staticmethod
...   def f():
...     print "hi"
...
>>> C.f()
hi

Or, what you probably meant is to use the instantiated instance like this:

>>> class C:
...   def f(self):
...     print "hi"
...
>>> c1 = C()
>>> c1.f()
hi
>>> C().f()
hi

If this confuses you, ask these questions:

1. What is the difference between the behavior of a static method vs the behavior of a normal method?
2. What does it mean to instantiate a class?
3. Differences between how static methods are run vs normal methods.
4. Differences between class and object.

fibo = f.fibo references the class itself. You probably wanted fibo = f.fibo() (note the parentheses) to make an instance of the class, after which fibo.f() should succeed correctly.

f.fibo.f() fails because you are essentially calling f(self, a=0) without supplying self; self is “bound” automatically when you have an instance of the class.

f is an (instance) method. However, you are calling it via fibo.f, where fibo is the class object. Hence, f is unbound (not bound to any class instance).

If you did

a = fibo()
a.f()

then that f is bound (to the instance a).

import swineflu

x = swineflu.fibo()   # create an object `x` of class `fibo`, an instance of the class
x.f()                 # call the method `f()`, bound to `x`. 

Here is a good tutorial to get started with classes in Python.

In Python 2 (3 has different syntax):

What if you can’t instantiate your Parent class before you need to call one of its methods?

Use super(ChildClass, self).method() to access parent methods.

class ParentClass(object):
    def method_to_call(self, arg_1):
        print arg_1

class ChildClass(ParentClass):
    def do_thing(self):
        super(ChildClass, self).method_to_call('my arg')

Differences in In python 2 and 3 version:

If you already have a default method in a class with same name and you re-declare as a same name it will appear as unbound-method call of that class instance when you wanted to instantiated it.

If you wanted class methods, but you declared them as instance methods instead.

An instance method is a method that is used when to create an instance of the class.

An example would be

   def user_group(self):   #This is an instance method
        return "instance method returning group"

Class label method:

   @classmethod
   def user_group(groups):   #This is an class-label method
        return "class method returning group"

In python 2 and 3 version differ the class @classmethod to write in python 3 it automatically get that as a class-label method and don’t need to write @classmethod I think this might help you.

Try this. For python 2.7.12 we need to define constructor or need to add self to each methods followed by defining an instance of an class called object.

import cv2

class calculator:

#   def __init__(self):

def multiply(self, a, b):
    x= a*b
    print(x)

def subtract(self, a,b):
    x = a-b
    print(x)

def add(self, a,b):
    x = a+b
    print(x)

def div(self, a,b):
    x = a/b
    print(x)

 calc = calculator()
 calc.multiply(2,3)
 calc.add(2,3)
 calc.div(10,5)
 calc.subtract(2,3)