In a few cases, our class may have methods which depend on only the argument values, or only on class variables. In this case, the self variable isn't terribly useful, since the method doesn't depend on any attributes of the instance. Objects which depend on argument values instead of internal status are called Lightweight or Flyweight objects.

A method which doesn't use the self variable is called a static method. These are defined using a built-in function named staticmethod. Python has a handy syntax, called a decorator, to make it easier to apply the staticmethod function to our method function definition. We'll return to decorators in Chapter 26, Decorators .

Here's the syntax for using the staticmethod decorator.

To evaluate a static method function, we simply reference the method of the class: Class . method ().

Example of Static Method. Here's an example of a class which has a static method. We've defined a deck shuffler. It doesn't have any attributes of its own. Instead, it applies it's shuffle algorithm to a Deck object.

class Shuffler( object ):
    @staticmethod
    def shuffle( aDeck ):
        for i in range(len(aDeck)):
            card= aDeck.get( random.randrange(len(aDeck)) )
            aDeck.put( i, card )

d1= Deck()
Shuffler.shuffle( d1 )

Class Method. The notion of a class method is relatively specialized. A class method applies to the class itself, not an instance of the class. A class method is generally used for "introspection" on the structure or definition of the class. It is commonly defined by a superclass so that all subclasses inherit the necessary introspection capability.

Generally, class methods are defined as part of sophisticated, dynamic frameworks. For our gambling examples, however, we do have some potential use for class methods. We might want to provide a base Player class who interacts with a particular Game to make betting decisions. Our superclass for all players can define methods that would be used in a subclass.