Private properties in Python can be declared by prefixing the attribute name with two underscores __
(double underscore) at the beginning of the variable name. This makes it so that the attribute can only be accessed within the scope of the class.
To call a private property on an instance of the class, you can use the name mangling syntax which adds the class name as a prefix to the attribute name with double underscores.
Here is an example:
main.py183 chars7 lines
In this example, calling my_instance._MyClass__private_property
outside of the class raises an AttributeError
. However, name mangling allows us to access the private property by adding the class name as a prefix with the double underscore. The convention is to use a single underscore instead of the class name prefix to indicate that a property or method is intended to be private or protected respectively.
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