Why object of python class returns address instead of return data?

Question

This is my first program in Python and I'm working with some API which is used to log in or register user.

This is how my class looks like:

class MyClass:
    ...
    def __init__(self, apikey, gameid, securitykey, responseformat, 
                 username=None, password=None, email=None)
        self.apikey = apikey
        self.gameid = gameid
        self.securitykey = securitykey
        self.responseformat = responseformat

        if username and password:
            self.userlogin(username,password)
        if username and password and email:
            self.userregistration(username, password, email)

    ''' And there are function userlogin and userregistration
    i'll show just one of them '''

    def userregistration(self, username, password, email):
        securitypayload = self.buildurl(username, password, email)
        user = requests.get('url', params = securitypayload)
        if 'error' in user.text:
            return user.text
        else:
            return 'Success!'

I tested this class with code below:

api_test = MyClass('apikeyadfasdf', 'gameiddfdfd', 'seckey34324324', 'JSON', 
                    'admin', 'pass1')
print(api_test)

and I got output like this:

<package1.package2.file_name.MyClass object at 0x7f278388b48>

But when I change my test to this:

api_test = MyClass('apikeyadfasdf', 'gameiddfdfd', 'seckey34324324', 'JSON', 
                    'admin', 'pass1')
data = api_test.userregistration(username, password, email)
print(data)

it'll do the thing and I'll get my output, but it'll execute that function two times.

I was thinking where the problem could be and I remembered that in JAVA you could get similar output when you forget about override toString(). Now, I've read about python equivalents: repr and str but firstly I don't know how to return data from methods (not self.apikey etc.) and secondly I'm not 100% sure that is the right way to get my output, not address.

Answer 1

If the problem is that you get the userregistration executed two times -- you execute it two times. Once in the __init__ and once explicitly.

Regarding returning from __init__ check SO "How to return a value from __init__ in Python?" :

__init__ returns the newly created object. You cannot (or at least shouldn't) return something else.

And besides, don't use the return value to indicate error - use exceptions:

• Errors and Exceptions
• Idioms and Anti-Idioms - Exceptions