Why do we use __init__ in Python classes?

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I am having trouble understanding the Initialization of classes.

What"s the point of them and how do we know what to include in them? Does writing in classes require a different type of thinking versus creating functions (I figured I could just create functions and then just wrap them in a class so I can re-use them. Will that work?)

Here"s an example:

class crawler:
  # Initialize the crawler with the name of database
  def __init__(self,dbname):
    self.con=sqlite.connect(dbname)

  def __del__(self):
    self.con.close()

  def dbcommit(self):
    self.con.commit()

Or another code sample:

class bicluster:
  def __init__(self,vec,left=None,right=None,distance=0.0,id=None):
    self.left=left
    self.right=right
    self.vec=vec
    self.id=id
    self.distance=distance

There are so many classes with __init__ I come across when trying to read other people"s code, but I don"t understand the logic in creating them.

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Why do we use __init__ in Python classes? __del__: Questions

import time
time.sleep(5)   # Delays for 5 seconds. You can also use a float value.

import time
while True:
    print("This prints once a minute.")
    time.sleep(60) # Delay for 1 minute (60 seconds).

from time import sleep
sleep(0.1) # Time in seconds

Why do we use __init__ in Python classes? __del__: Questions

We hope this article has helped you to resolve the problem. Apart from Why do we use __init__ in Python classes?, check other __del__-related topics.

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