Python General-Purpose Special Methods
General-purpose special methods in Python are predefined methods that enable customized behavior for instances of user-defined classes. These methods, also known as magic methods or dunder methods (due to their double underscore prefix and suffix), allow developers to define how instances of a class behave in various contexts, such as arithmetic operations, comparison, iteration, and string representation. Examples of general-purpose special methods include `__init__` for object initialization, `__str__` for string representation, `__eq__` for equality comparison, `__iter__` for iteration, and `__len__` for determining the length of objects. By implementing these methods within a class, developers can customize the behavior of instances to better suit their intended use cases, making Python classes more flexible and intuitive to use. General-purpose special methods are fundamental to Python's object-oriented programming paradigm and are extensively used in defining custom data types, iterators, and operator overloading.