On Tue, 3 Oct 2017 06:32 am, Bill wrote: > Steve D'Aprano wrote: >> Circle didn't use any setters, but I could have let you set the >> diameter, which in >> turn would set the radius: >> >> circle.radius = 2 >> assert circle.diameter == 4 >> circle.diameter == 2 # requires a setter >> assert circle.radius == 1 >> >> Getting that to work is left as an exercise :-) >> > It WAS a good exercise!! I was concerned about "infinite recursion" > between my two property setters.. Thanks! Next? :) > > Bill > > > import math > > > class Circle(object): > """ Define a circle class with radius and diameter""" > def __init__(self, radius): > self.radius = radius > self.diameter =2*radius
There's no need to set the radius and the diameter, as one is completely derived from the other and the transformation is cheap enough to perform on the fly as needed. Consider what happens if, due to a bug or an accident, you end up with a Circle instance that says the radius is 5 and the diameter is 20. They can't *both* be right, and you will get inconsistent results depending on whether your other methods happen to use the diameter or the radius. Instead, we should steal the Single Source Of Truth principle from informations systems theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_source_of_truth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_version_of_the_truth There are valid cases for violating this principle in object design, e.g. caches are technically a violation of SSOT but an acceptable one. With that in mind, your class simplifies to: class Circle(object): """ Define a circle class with radius and diameter""" def __init__(self, radius): self.radius = radius @property def radius(self): return self._radius @radius.setter def radius(self, value): self._radius = value @property def diameter(self): return 2*self._radius @diameter.setter def diameter(self, value): self._radius = value/2 @property def area(self): return math.pi*self.radius**2 @property def circumference(self): return math.pi*self.diameter -- Steve “Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list