What is (self, other) and (self, cont)? Which object is (self, other), and to which (self, cont) (spam or hello)?

Question

Here is the code:

class SpecialString:
def __init__(self, cont):
self.cont = cont

def __truediv__(self, other):
line = "=" * len(other.cont)
return "\n".join([self.cont, line, other.cont])
spam = SpecialString("spam")
hello = SpecialString("Hello world!")
print(spam / hello)

What makes the join() method? Why is there a list in the parameters of the join() method and not a simple enumeration of the parameters: self.cont, line, other.cont? Please explain in more detail.

Answer 1

The self, other, and cont are arguments to the class methods. The self is the keyword that points to the class itself, cont is just the keyword they chose for a string, and other is another string from another instance of the class. The join method joins a list, and therefore takes a list for an argument. The "\n" is what it separates the values from the list with.

For example:

lst = ["hello", "world"]
print("\n".join(lst))

# output is:
# hello
# world

The join method took a list as an argument, and printed the values with a line break separating them.

I hope this helps, comment if you need any more clarification.