What is a clean “pythonic” way to implement multiple constructors?

I can’t find a definitive answer for this. As far as I know, you can’t have multiple __init__ functions in a Python class. So how do I solve this problem?

Suppose I have a class called Cheese with the number_of_holes property. How can I have two ways of creating cheese objects…

1. One that takes a number of holes like this: parmesan = Cheese(num_holes = 15).
2. And one that takes no arguments and just randomizes the number_of_holes property: gouda = Cheese().

I can think of only one way to do this, but this seems clunky:

class Cheese():
    def __init__(self, num_holes = 0):
        if (num_holes == 0):
            # Randomize number_of_holes
        else:
            number_of_holes = num_holes

What do you say? Is there another way?

Using num_holes=None as the default is fine if you are going to have just __init__.

If you want multiple, independent “constructors”, you can provide these as class methods. These are usually called factory methods. In this case you could have the default for num_holes be 0.

class Cheese(object):
    def __init__(self, num_holes=0):
        "defaults to a solid cheese"
        self.number_of_holes = num_holes

    @classmethod
    def random(cls):
        return cls(randint(0, 100))

    @classmethod
    def slightly_holey(cls):
        return cls(randint(0, 33))

    @classmethod
    def very_holey(cls):
        return cls(randint(66, 100))

Now create object like this:

gouda = Cheese()
emmentaler = Cheese.random()
leerdammer = Cheese.slightly_holey()