Is it neccessary to decorate a classmethod at it's definition?

Question

There are three kinds of methods in Python's OOP concept — instance method, class method, and static method.

class MyClass:
    def instancemethod(self):
        return 'instance method called'

    @classmethod
    def classmethod(cls):
        return 'class method called'

    @staticmethod
    def staticmethod():
        return 'static method called'

It is obvious to know all three methods. Now I create a new method in a class:

class Test():
    def ppr():
        print('what method is ppr?')

It is not instance method.

inst = Test()
inst.ppr()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: ppr() takes 0 positional arguments but 1 was given

So it is a class method?

Test.ppr()
what method is ppr?

No @classmethod keyword to decorate the ppr function.

Answer 1

Lets test it out:

class MyClass:
    def instancemethod(self):
        return 'instance method called'

    @classmethod
    def classmethod(cls):
        return 'class method called'

    @staticmethod
    def staticmethod():
        return 'static method called'

class Test():
    def ppr():
        print('what method is ppr?')

print(type(MyClass.instancemethod)) # -> function
print(type(MyClass.classmethod))    # -> method
print(type(MyClass.staticmethod))   # -> function 

print(type(Test.ppr))               # -> function 

As Test.ppr comes back as a function and it can be run without creating an instance - it is a @staticmethod.

If it was a @classmethod instead - it would come back as type method.

q.e.d.

---

My IDE shows me a warning: 'Method ppr has no argument.' which hints that you probably should either add a self or a cls and the corresponding @classmethod to it.

To answer your question - it seems it is not needed (at this point in time) - BUT it is prudent to declare them @staticmethod to make your intent clear.