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The with statement handles resources, and allows users to work with the Context Manager protocol.cite-ref-28[24] One function (__enter__()) is called when entering scope and another (__exit__()) when leaving. This prevents forgetting to free the resource and also handles more complicated situations such as freeing the resource when an exception occurs while it is in use. Context Managers are often used with files, database connections, test cases, etc.

Properties allow specially defined methods to be invoked on an object instance by using the same syntax as used for attribute access. An example of a class defining some properties is:

A class that defines one or more of the three special methods __get__(self, instance, owner), __set__(self, instance, value), __delete__(self, instance) can be used as a descriptor. Creating an instance of a descriptor as a class member of a second class makes the instance a property of the second class.cite-ref-29[25]

Python allows the creation of class methods and static methods via the use of the @classmethod and @staticmethod decorators. The first argument to a class method is the class object instead of the self-reference to the instance. A static method has no special first argument. Neither the instance, nor the class object is passed to a static method.

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