A Better Pizza Interface With Class Methods

A static method can also be used to create factory functions. What is the difference between the 2 below:

class Pizza:

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

    def __repr__(self):
        return f'Pizza({self.ingredients})'

    @classmethod
    def margherita(cls):
        return cls(['cheese', 'tomatoes'])

    @classmethod
    def prosciutto(cls):
        return cls(['cheese', 'tomatoes', 'ham', 'mushrooms'])

class Pizza:

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

    def __repr__(self):
        return f'Pizza({self.ingredients})'

    @staticmethod
    def margherita():
        return Pizza(['cheese', 'tomatoes'])

    @staticmethod
    def prosciutto():
        return Pizza(['cheese', 'tomatoes', 'ham', 'mushrooms'])

Why do you refer to the Pizza factory methods as “Static method” sometimes and “class method” at other times? They are not synonymous as there are “static methods” distinct from “class methods”?

If you use a staticmethod instead of a classmethod you’ll need to spell out the class name explicitly in the method body:

@staticmethod
def margherita():
    return Pizza(['cheese', 'tomatoes'])

This means if you ever rename the class to something else (e.g. Pizza → FlatBread) these methods will break, because Pizza is now undefined.

With a classmethod you can avoid this issue because you’ll get a reference to the class you can use instead of referring to the class name explicitly:

@classmethod
def margherita(cls):
    return cls(['cheese', 'tomatoes'])

In the example above, check out how I’m using cls(...) to create the instance instead of calling Pizza(...) directly :)

Italian watching here 😂😂 Don’t worry about the pronunciation of Prosciutto 😀 the best thing you can do is putting always mozzarella and not other kind of cheese 😀 Anyway, good and clean tutorial.