dict and slots

Objects in Python store their attributes in dictionaries that can be accessed by __dict__ magic attribute:

In [1]: class A: pass
In [2]: a = A()
In [3]: a.x = 1
In [4]: a.__dict__
Out[4]: {'x': 1}

By direct accessing it you can even create attributes that are not Python identifiers (which means you can't get them with a standard obj.attr syntax):

In [6]: a.__dict__[' '] = ' '
In [7]: getattr(a, ' ')
Out[7]: ' '

You can also ask Python to store attributes directly in memory (like a simple C struct) using __slots__. It will save some memory and some CPU cycles that are used for dictionary lookups.

class Point:
    __slots__ = ['x', 'y']

There are some things you should remember while using slots. First, you can't set any attributes that are not specified in __slots__ (unless you add __dict__ there as well). Second, if you inherit from a class with slots, your own __slots__ don't override parental __slots__ but are added to it:

class Parent: __slots__ = ['x']
class Child(Parent): __slots__ = ['y']
c = Child()
c.x = 1
c.y = 2

Third, you can't inherit from two different classes with nonempty __slots__, even if they are identical. You can get more information from this excellent Stack Overflow answer.

Remember, that __slots__ is meant for optimization, not for constraining attributes.