title: Python Unittest- class variables
body: <p>I was hoping someone wouldn't mind explaining what is going on here. I am attempting to run a python unittest that has been confirmed to be working using python 2.7. However, when attempting to run this same test on a machine running python 2.6 I am getting an error which I cannot figure out. Here is an example of what is happening</p>
  
  <pre><code>import re, string, os, subprocess, unittest
  import MERCH_FUNCTIONS
  
  
  class merchTests(unittest.TestCase):
      @classmethod
      def setUpClass(self):
          self._merchFileString=open("test_file.txt",'r').read()
          self._merchFileList=self._merchFileString.split("\n") #convert string to list
  
      def test_stuff(self):
           #print list
           print(self._merchFileList) 
  if __name__ == '__main__':
      unittest.main()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>For some reason if I run this code using python 2.7 it successfully runs the test, and the list self._merchFileList prints out.</p>
  
  <p>However, when running this same code with python 2.6 I am getting the following error(s):</p>
  
  <pre><code>======================================================================
  ERROR: test_stuff (__main__.merchTests)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "MERCH_Test_Case.py", line 14, in test_stuff
      print(self._merchFileList)
  AttributeError: 'merchTests' object has no attribute '_merchFileList'
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ran 1 test in 0.000s
  
  FAILED (errors=1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on here. I have tried several different things with no success. If someone would be so kind as to explain what is going wrong here I would greatly appreciate it.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you in advance.</p>