Static methods in Python

Question

Is it possible to have static methods in Python which I could call without initializing a class, like:

ClassName.static_method()

Answer 1

Yep, using the static method decorator

class MyClass(object):
    @staticmethod
    def the_static_method(x):
        print(x)

MyClass.the_static_method(2)  # outputs 2

Note that some code might use the old method of defining a static method, using staticmethod as a function rather than a decorator. This should only be used if you have to support ancient versions of Python (2.2 and 2.3)

class MyClass(object):
    def the_static_method(x):
        print(x)
    the_static_method = staticmethod(the_static_method)

MyClass.the_static_method(2)  # outputs 2

This is entirely identical to the first example (using @staticmethod), just not using the nice decorator syntax

Finally, use the static method sparingly! There are very few situations where static-methods are necessary in Python, and I've seen them used many times where a separate "top-level" function would have been clearer.