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Class: StringUnit

The StringUnit class is a subclass of Variable designed to represent quantities that are categorical or string-based, rather than numeric. Examples include a material's phase, a flow type, or a component's status. It provides a simple way to handle these non-numeric values within a consistent framework.

Supported Units

By definition, this class does not have physical units. The category attribute is used to provide context for the string value.

Class Reference

class StringUnit(value, category='string')

A class for handling string-based quantities.

Parameters:

  • value : str
    The string value of the quantity.
  • category : str, default='string'
    The descriptive category for the quantity (e.g., 'flow_type', 'phase_state').

Raises:

  • TypeError : If value is not a string.

Examples: 

# Create a StringUnit object for a flow type  
>>> flow = StringUnit("Laminar", "flow_type")

# Create a StringUnit object for a phase state  
>>> phase = StringUnit("Gas", "phase_state")

Properties

Property Type Description
.value str The string value of the quantity.
.original_value str The value as provided during initialization. Identical to .value.
.category str The category name for the string value.

String Representation

  • __repr__(self)
    Returns a string representation of the object in the format "{value} ({category})", which is also used for the __str__ method.