9.3.5. 类和实例变量

一般来说，实例变量用于每个实例的唯一数据，而类变量用于类的所有实例共享的属性和方法:

class Dog:
    kind = 'canine'         # class variable shared by all instances
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name    # instance variable unique to each instance
>>> d = Dog('Fido')
>>> e = Dog('Buddy')
>>> d.kind                  # shared by all dogs
'canine'
>>> e.kind                  # shared by all dogs
'canine'
>>> d.name                  # unique to d
'Fido'
>>> e.name                  # unique to e
'Buddy'

正如 名称和对象 中已讨论过的，共享数据可能在涉及 mutable 对象例如列表和字典的时候导致令人惊讶的结果。 例如以下代码中的 tricks 列表不应该被用作类变量，因为所有的 Dog 实例将只共享一个单独的列表:

class Dog:
    tricks = []             # mistaken use of a class variable
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
    def add_trick(self, trick):
        self.tricks.append(trick)
>>> d = Dog('Fido')
>>> e = Dog('Buddy')
>>> d.add_trick('roll over')
>>> e.add_trick('play dead')
>>> d.tricks                # unexpectedly shared by all dogs
['roll over', 'play dead']

正确的类设计应该使用实例变量:

class Dog:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        self.tricks = []    # creates a new empty list for each dog
    def add_trick(self, trick):
        self.tricks.append(trick)
>>> d = Dog('Fido')
>>> e = Dog('Buddy')
>>> d.add_trick('roll over')
>>> e.add_trick('play dead')
>>> d.tricks
['roll over']
>>> e.tricks
['play dead']