Do we really need @staticmethod decorator in python to declare static method

Question

I am curious about why we need the @staticmethod decorator to declare method as static. I was reading about static methods in Python, and I came to know that static method can be callable without instantiating its class.
So I tried the two examples below, but both do the same:

class StatMethod:
  def stat():
    print("without Decorator")

class StatMethod_with_decorator:
  @staticmethod
  def stat():
    print("With Decorator")

If I call the stat() method on the class directly, both print/show the values below:

>> StatMethod.stat()
without Decorator
>> StatMethod_with_decorator.stat()
With Decorator

Asked By: Sanjay

||

Source

Answer 1

You need the decorator if you intend to try to call the @staticmethod from the instance of the class instead of of the class directly

class Foo():
    def bar(x):
        return x + 5

>>> f = Foo()
>>> f.bar(4)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#7>", line 1, in <module>
    f.bar(4)
TypeError: bar() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given

Now if I declare @staticmethod the self argument isn’t passed implicitly as the first argument

class Foo():
    @staticmethod
    def bar(x):
        return x + 5

>>> f = Foo()
>>> f.bar(4)
9

Answered By: Cory Kramer

Answer 2

if function has some parameters, then call non static method would be failed

and static method didn’t use the local variables in the class, but the class method will be

Answered By: Jimmy Guo

Answer 3

The documentation describes some transformations that are done when calling a user defined method:

Note that the transformation from function object to (unbound or
bound) method object happens each time the attribute is retrieved from
the class or instance. In some cases, a fruitful optimization is to
assign the attribute to a local variable and call that local variable.
Also notice that this transformation only happens for user-defined
functions; other callable objects (and all non-callable objects) are
retrieved without transformation. It is also important to note that
user-defined functions which are attributes of a class instance are
not converted to bound methods; this only happens when the function is
an attribute of the class.

For methods marked as staticmethod this is different:

Static method objects provide a way of defeating the transformation of
function objects to method objects described above. A static method
object is a wrapper around any other object, usually a user-defined
method object. When a static method object is retrieved from a class
or a class instance, the object actually returned is the wrapped
object, which is not subject to any further transformation. Static
method objects are not themselves callable, although the objects they
wrap usually are. Static method objects are created by the built-in
staticmethod() constructor.

Answered By: Flurin

Answer 4

Just my simple approach here. Forget the decorators. Use the class directly (Python 3.8):

class MyClass:
    def myMethod(self, myValue):
        print(myValue)

MyClass.myMethod(None, "hi")

Or both:

MyClass.myMethod(None, "hi from class")
myInstance = myClass()
myInstance.myMethod2("hi from instance")

Answered By: Axel

Answer 5

Update: In python 3.10 you dont need the decorator any more

Answered By: Antonio

Do we really need @staticmethod decorator in python to declare static method

Question:

Answers: