Use class name to access static variables

Question

Is there a way to access a class variable without explicitly using the class name, in case I decided to change the name of the class later on?

Something like this

static_variable = 'stuff'

className = CLASS

def method (self):
    className.static_variable

Is this possible in a simple way?

Answer

self.static_variable or __class__.static_variable

Answer 1

Don't forget to read the comments.

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For anybody looking for an answer to this, disregarding for the moment whether mixing static and instance variables is a good idea.

There are two simple ways to approach this.

First way

class MyClass():
    static_variable = 'VARIABLE'

    def __init__(self):
        self.instanceVariable = 'test'

    def access_static(self):
        print(__class__.static_variable)

Second way

class MyClass():
    static_variable = 'VARIABLE'

    def __init__(self):
        self.instanceVariable = 'test'

    def access_static(self):
        print(self.static_variable)

An instance variable can be accessed using class.static_variable, or using self.static_variable as long as an instance variable hasn't been defined for self.static_variable somewhere in the code.

Using self would make it ambiguous as to whether you are accessing a static variable or instance variable though, so my preferred way of doing it would be to simply prepend static_variable with class instead of ClassName.static_variable