python struct vs class - Brave Search

Difference between class (Python) and struct (C)

stackoverflow.com › questions › 598931 › difference-between-class-python-and-struct-c

Structs encapsulate data.

Classes encapsulate behavior and data.

Answer from George V. Reilly on Stack Overflow

stackoverflow.com › questions › 598931 › difference-between-class-python-and-struct-c

Difference between class (Python) and struct (C) - Stack Overflow

Structs encapsulate data.

Classes encapsulate behavior and data.

Aside from numerous technical differences between how they're implemented, they serve roughly the same purpose: the organization of data.

The big difference is that in Python (and other object oriented languages such as C++, Java, or C#), a class can also have functions associated with it that operate only on the instance of the class, whereas in C, a function that wishes to operate on a struct must accept the structure as a parameter in some way, usually by pointer.

I won't delve into the technical differences between the two, as they are fairly significant, but I suggest you look into the concept of Object Oriented Programming.

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More results from stackoverflow.com

reddit.com › r/learnpython › using a python 'class' as a c-style 'struct'

r/learnpython on Reddit: Using a Python 'class' as a C-style 'struct'

March 22, 2023 -

In perl one can use the 'Class::Struct' library to a large degree as if it were a C-style struct. However the syntax is not the most comfortable.

Is it possible to do the same thing in Python, but using the native 'Class' keyword?

A quick look at the documentation suggests this may work:

Class SettingsStructure:
     DataMemberOne = 0
     DataMemberTwo = 0

Then later in the same programme:

Settings = SettingsStructure()

Settings.DataMemberOne = 10
Settings.DataMemberTwo = 20

Is that possible?

What you want is a dataclass , which will do exactly this. You will need to use type hints to declare your attributes. from dataclasses import dataclass @dataclass class DataStructure: data_member_one: int = 0 data_member_two: int = 0 ... settings = DataStructure(data_member_one=10, data_member_two=20) # or set them manually: settings.data_member_two = 25 Note, as I've shown, Python style for variables and attributes is lower_case_with_underscore.

I agree with u/danielroseman that you appear to be looking for dataclasses. There is also ctypes.Structure, https://docs.python.org/3/library/ctypes.html#structures-and-unions , but those are only useful in limited situations (sharing memory, communicating to a compiled module, etc.)

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Class vs Struct - YouTube

mayowaobisesan.medium.com › class-or-structs-c54263d200ad

CLASS OR STRUCTS? | by Mayowa Obisesan | Medium

January 11, 2024 - Because just like you know that int will throw error if used in place of strings in your code, your user-defined structs will also help control using invalid types where they are being used. Classes: A class is a blueprint for creating objects (a particular data structure), providing initial values for members of the object called member state or member variables or object attributes, and the implementations of the behaviour of those members called member functions or methods.

reddit.com › r/learnpython › some languages like c++ have both data structures and classes; in python, are structs just classes with public attributes and methods ?

r/learnpython on Reddit: Some languages like C++ have both data structures and classes; In python, are structs just classes with public attributes and methods ?

June 21, 2021 -

To my understanding, in C++, the only major difference between structs and classes is that structs do not allow for any encapsulation - all of their vars and funcs are public.

You can actually have private attributes in a C++ struct, the only difference is that class members are private by default, and struct members are public by default. Python does not have the concept of "public" or "private", everything is public, and attributes that are "private" are only "private" by convention.

Check out dataclasses. from dataclasses import dataclass @dataclass class Strike: tohit: int damage: int bonus: int strike = Strike(roll_d(20), roll_d(6), 6) if strike.to_hit + strike.bonus > ac: monster.hp -= strike.damage Might be similar to what you're used to with a struct. You could also check out namedtuple from import collections .

medium.com › swlh › structures-in-python-ed199411b3e1

Structures in Python. In Python, there is a way where you can… | by Akshay Chavan | The Startup | Medium

September 14, 2020 - In python, can define a structure using a class, where the user does not define any functions in the class.

quora.com › Why-is-Python-s-class-not-called-a-struct-It-seems-like-a-struct-with-inheritance

Why is Python’s class not called a struct? It seems like a struct with inheritance. - Quora

Answer (1 of 3): Python classes and structs are very far apart for many uses. It is like comparing traveling to a car - sometimes you travel by car, perhaps you even do it often. But if you travel only by car, you miss a lot of traveling. A struct is a group of values, with members addressed by ...

sololearn.com › en › Discuss › 1378 › i-can-not-understand-difference-between-class-and-struct

I can not understand difference between Class and Struct.

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stackoverflow.com › questions › 5943425 › is-there-a-data-type-in-python-similar-to-structs-in-c

Is there a data type in Python similar to structs in C++? - Stack Overflow

Why not? Classes are fine for that.

If you want to save some memory, you might also want to use __slots__ so the objects don't have a __dict__. See http://docs.python.org/reference/datamodel.html#slots for details and Usage of __slots__? for some useful information.

For example, a class holding only two values (a and b) could looks like this:

class AB(object):
    __slots__ = ('a', 'b')

If you actually want a dict but with obj.item access instead of obj['item'], you could subclass dict and implement __getattr__ and __setattr__ to behave like __getitem__ and __setitem__.

dataclass is now built-in to Python as of Python 3.7!

from dataclasses import dataclass

@dataclass
class EZClass:
    name: str='default'
    qty: int

Test:

classy = EZClass('cars', 3)
print(classy)

Output:

EZClass(name='cars', qty=3)

Besides for the automatic initialization and __repr__ methods which it generates, it also automatically creates an __eq__ method to make it simple and intuitive to compare two instances of the class.

See PEP 557.

Backported to Python 3.6 using the dataclasses package.

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

dbader.org › blog › records-structs-and-data-transfer-objects-in-python

Records, Structs, and Data Transfer Objects in Python – dbader.org

June 6, 2017 - You need to add behavior (methods) to the object: You should write a custom class. Either from scratch or by extending collections.namedtuple or typing.NamedTuple. You need to pack data tightly to serialize it to disk or send it over the network: Time to bust out struct.Struct, this is a great use case for it. If you’re looking for a safe default choice, my general recommendation for implementing a plain record, struct, or data object in Python would be to:

shiksha.com › home › it & software › it & software articles › programming articles › difference between class and structure

Difference between Class and Structure - Shiksha Online

March 6, 2023 - Ques: Create an employee record that has three members’ names, ages, and salaries. Answer: Also Read: Classes and Object in Python · Also Read: Classes and Objects in C++ Structure is a value type, while classes are reference types.

Mischavandenburg

mischavandenburg.com › zet › go-struct-python-class

Structs In Go - Similar To Classes In Python? | Mischa van den Burg

April 10, 2023 - Structs can have methods, but they are not contained in the struct definition, like you would see in Python. Methods are defined on types, and the type does not need to be a struct.

stackoverflow.com › questions › 35988 › c-like-structures-in-python

struct - C-like structures in Python - Stack Overflow

Is there a way to conveniently define a C-like structure in Python? I'm tired of writing stuff like: class MyStruct(): def __init__(self, field1, field2, field3): self.field1 = field1 ...

completeera.com › struct-vs-class-programming-language-differences

Struct vs Class: Programming Language Differences - CompleteEra

April 27, 2026 - TL;DR: Structs are lightweight, stateless data containers (no methods by default), while classes are object-oriented with state (data) + behavior (methods).

Kitchin Research Group

kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu › blog › 2013 › 02 › 27 › Some-basic-data-structures-in-python

Some basic data structures in python

February 27, 2013 - Python does not exactly have the same thing as a struct in Matlab. You can achieve something like it by defining an empty class and then defining attributes of the class.

TestMu AI Community

community.testmuai.com › ask a question

More Convenient Way to Define Struct-like Classes in Python - Ask a Question - TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) Community

November 11, 2024 - How can I define a python struct similar to C-like structures? I’m tired of writing code like this: class MyStruct(): def init(self, field1, field2, field3): self.field1 = field1 self.field2 = field2 self.field3 = field3 …

snarky.ca › proposing-a-struct-syntax

Proposing a struct syntax for Python

June 8, 2023 - For instance, if you had struct Point1D(x), struct Point2D(x, y) and struct Point3D(x, y, z), you could do type Point = Point1D | Point2D | Point3D and have type checkers recognize that all three cases need to be handled by a match statement (maybe with some PatternExhaustion type or something to denote that fact). To be very specific as to why I think this could be better than dataclasses: Typing is optional (there are still folks who don't want to lean into that and it simply isn't always necessary) Class construction should be faster (which intuitively you would think shouldn't matter, but I have talked to folks where this is an actual concern, especially when startup time is critical)

teamtreehouse.com › community › struct-vs-class

Struct vs Class (Example) | Treehouse Community

I had the same question and found this article to be helpful: https://learnappmaking.com/comparing-classes-vs-structs-swift/ In short, a struct creates a copy of data (it is a value type) while a class creates a reference to it (it is a reference type). This is the example used in the article: "Reference Type: Bob has a phone number. He gives it to Alice. Alice doesn’t write down the phone number for herself, but instead remembers that Bob has it. When she needs the phone number, she asks Bob. When Alice accidentally changes one digit of the phone number, Bob’s phone number changes too. (You could picture this as Bob and Alice both holding the piece of paper the phone number is written on.) Value Type: Bob has a phone number, and he gives it to Alice. Alice writes it down and now has her own copy. When she accidentally changes it, only her copy changes, and not the original phone number Bob has." So it boils down to choosing the right one for the task, depending on whether it makes sense to copy data or make a reference to the original. The pros and cons of copies vs. references isn't entirely clear to me yet, but hopefully this helps answer your question somewhat.

medium.com › @imani.sajad92 › struct-vs-class-b4c89ba88070

Struct vs Class. Advantages and Disadvantages | by Sajad Imani | Medium

February 10, 2025 - Struct is value type and it is copied by value, meaning that a complete replica of the data is created when passed or assigned. Class is reference type and it is copied by reference, meaning that only a reference to the original data is passed ...

realpython.com › python-data-structures

Common Python Data Structures (Guide) – Real Python

August 26, 2020 - If you need to add behavior (methods) to the object, then you should write a custom class, either from scratch, or using the dataclass decorator, or by extending collections.namedtuple or typing.NamedTuple. If you need to pack data tightly to serialize it to disk or to send it over the network, then it’s time to read up on struct.Struct because this is a great use case for it! If you’re looking for a safe default choice, then my general recommendation for implementing a plain record, struct, or data object in Python would be to use collections.namedtuple in Python 2.x and its younger sibling, typing.NamedTuple in Python 3.

reddit.com › r/golang › please eli5: how are structs not like classes and embedding not like inheritance

r/golang on Reddit: Please ELI5: How are structs not like Classes and embedding not like inheritance

July 21, 2021 -

Hello everyone,

I am an aspiring gopher coming in from Python, I am self taught so a lot of concepts are still a bit confusing especially the lower level conceptual things, so I apologize if this is a stupid question.

I'm reading "Learning Go" by Jon Bodner and when reading about structs and embedding it stresses that it's NOT object-oriented and it's NOT inheritance, however when I think about it vis-a-vis how I'm using classes and inheritance in Python they feel almost the same. Could somebody explain like I' 5 how they differ?

Thank you.

With inheritance, you are saying that a subclass IS a superclass. For example, if Car inherits from Vehicle, it means that Car IS an Vehicle. With composition, you are saying that a struct HAS another struct. For example, if the struct Cars is composed of a struct Battery, it means that a Car HAS a Battery. This means that: With inheritance, all methods from Vehicle would be inherited by Car. This does not happen with composition - Car does not inherit methods from Battery. With inheritance, a subclass can override methods from the superclass (Car can have a method that "replaces" the one from Vehicle). With composition, here is no override. Some languages support multiple inheritance, and with this you may run into the "diamond problem". Let's say that you have a Photocopier class that inherits from Printer and Scanner, and both Printer and Scanner have a ".turnOn()" method, should the language inherit from Printer or Scanner? With composition, since there is no inheritance, Photocopier would not inherit these methods and would not run into the diamond problem. These are some examples, but I'm sure you can find more. They may look very similar on the surface, but there are fundamental differences.

I disagree about classes. "Structs with methods" on them are classes, for a cross-language definition of the term "class". They aren't "classes" for any other language's exact definition of class, but those definitions are only helpful in the context of specific languages. One relevant Go-specific difference is that I had to scare-quote the term "structs with methods on them" because they aren't the only classes. You can put methods on any user-defined type . So they are not uniquely classes, you can put methods on more than just structs. Structs are just, for obvious reasons, the "default" thing that happens to. Composition, however, really isn't inheritance. In practice, the big difference is that an inherited class receives a reference to the full instance, and superclass methods end up with that reference and can call overridden methods as a result. With Go composition, composed-in values do not get a reference to the composing value . This means you really can't do inheritance. In Go, you generally do "inheritance" by declaring an interface that your values may conform to, and simply implementing the various values. If you want to share implementation between those values, you absolutely can, you just have to do it via normal functions or other composition, you don't get to use "inheritance". This doesn't contract what u/tail_exchange , it's just another perspective. That was the theoretical perspective, I spoke in this post about the practical way that manifests in functions.