# PyCall: How can I make a python class with static attributes?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pycall-how-can-i-make-a-python-class-with-static-attributes/13007
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [August 7, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pycall-how-can-i-make-a-python-class-with-static-attributes/13007 "2018-08-07T22:35:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@galenlynch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/galenlynch)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pycall-how-can-i-make-a-python-class-with-static-attributes/13007/1 "2018-08-07T22:35:49Z")
I want to be able to capture key-press events in a Julia powered [PyQtGraph](http://pyqtgraph.org/) GUI using the amazing [PyCall](https://github.com/JuliaPy/PyCall.jl) package, but have been unable to because I can’t make python classes with static attributes using the `@pydef` macro in PyCall.
Moreover, when I try to make any class with a static attribute using `@pydef`, I get the following error:
```julia
julia> @pydef mutable struct Foo
class_attr = 1
function __init__ (self)
println(self[:class_attr])
end
end
ERROR: AssertionError: Not a function definition: class_attr = 1
```
which is equivalent (I hope) to the following python code:
```python
class Foo(object):
class_attr= 1
def __init__ (self):
print(self.class_attr)
```
Looking at [the source code](https://github.com/JuliaPy/PyCall.jl/blob/2673bfe7559ff9d7bd9056e58f08e6ed160cb737/src/pyclass.jl#L61) responsible for parsing the contents of a `@pydef` macro call makes me think that this capability is simply not yet implemented.
I have already opened [an issue](https://github.com/JuliaPy/PyCall.jl/issues/513) in PyCall, but was wondering if there is some other way to make a python class with a static attribute that I’m missing?
---
### Author:  [@ihnorton](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ihnorton)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pycall-how-can-i-make-a-python-class-with-static-attributes/13007/2 "2018-08-07T22:44:09Z")
Hopefully there is a more direct answer, but if not, are you sure you need a class? qobject.connect should take a function handle. If you wanted to use a class as a closure, there’s a slightly ugly hack to do that in the function’s properties.
---
### Author:  [@galenlynch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/galenlynch)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pycall-how-can-i-make-a-python-class-with-static-attributes/13007/3 "2018-08-08T01:03:34Z")
Thanks I’ll try something along those lines! I think I do need a class at some point but you’re absolutely right that I don’t need to connect the class itself to the signal, nor do I really need to have the signal be a static attribute of the class.
I was going to subclass a window ([GraphicsLayoutWidget](http://pyqtgraph.org/documentation/widgets/graphicslayoutwidget.html)), add a custom signal as a static attribute, then reimplement the keyPressEvent method to emit the signal on a key press (basically [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27475940/pyqt-connect-to-keypressevent)), but I could figure out some other way of doing it that woudn’t require a static attribute.