Class variables

Besides instance variables, there are also class variables. They are are created by specifying variables inside the class itself, not a method:

class Network:
    all_allocated_ip = []

    def __init__(self, network):
        self.network = network
        self.hosts = tuple(
            str(ip) for ip in ipaddress.ip_network(network).hosts()
        )
        self.allocated = []


    def allocate(self, ip):
        if ip in self.hosts:
            if ip not in self.allocated:
                self.allocated.append(ip)
                type(self).all_allocated_ip.append(ip)
            else:
                raise ValueError(f"IP address {ip} is already in the allocated list")
        else:
            raise ValueError(f"IP address {ip} does not belong to {self.network}")

Class variables can be accessed in different ways:

• self.all_allocated_ip

• Network.all_allocated_ip

• type(self).all_allocated_ip

The self.all_allocated_ip option allows you to access the value of class variable or add an element if the class variable is a mutable data type. The disadvantage of this option is that if in the method you write self.all_allocated_ip = ..., instead of changing the class variable, an instance variable will be created.

The option Network.all_allocated_ip will work correctly, but a small drawback this option is that the class name is written manually. You can use the third option type(self).all_allocated_ip instead, since type(self) returns a class.

Now the class has a variable all_allocated_ip which is written all IP addresses that are allocated on the networks:

In [3]: net1 = Network("10.1.1.0/29")

In [4]: net1.allocate("10.1.1.1")
   ...: net1.allocate("10.1.1.2")
   ...: net1.allocate("10.1.1.3")
   ...:

In [5]: net1.allocated
Out[5]: ['10.1.1.1', '10.1.1.2', '10.1.1.3']

In [6]: net2 = Network("10.2.2.0/29")

In [7]: net2.allocate("10.2.2.1")
   ...: net2.allocate("10.2.2.2")
   ...:

In [9]: net2.allocated
Out[9]: ['10.2.2.1', '10.2.2.2']

In [10]: Network.all_allocated_ip
Out[10]: ['10.1.1.1', '10.1.1.2', '10.1.1.3', '10.2.2.1', '10.2.2.2']

The variable is accessible not only through the class, but also through the instances:

In [40]: Network.all_allocated_ip
Out[40]: ['10.1.1.1', '10.1.1.2', '10.1.1.3', '10.2.2.1', '10.2.2.2']

In [41]: net1.all_allocated_ip
Out[41]: ['10.1.1.1', '10.1.1.2', '10.1.1.3', '10.2.2.1', '10.2.2.2']

In [42]: net2.all_allocated_ip
Out[42]: ['10.1.1.1', '10.1.1.2', '10.1.1.3', '10.2.2.1', '10.2.2.2']