How do you create an incremental ID in a Python Class

First, use Uppercase Names for Classes. lowercase names for attributes.

class Resource( object ):
    class_counter= 0
    def __init__(self, name, position, type, active):
        self.name = name
        self.position = position
        self.type = type
        self.active = active
        self.id= Resource.class_counter
        Resource.class_counter += 1

Trying the highest voted answer in python 3 you'll run into an error since .next() has been removed.

Instead you could do the following:

import itertools

class BarFoo:

    id_iter = itertools.count()

    def __init__(self):
        # Either:
        self.id = next(BarFoo.id_iter)

        # Or
        self.id = next(self.id_iter)
        ...

Concise and elegant:

import itertools

class resource_cl():
    newid = itertools.count().next
    def __init__(self):
        self.id = resource_cl.newid()
        ...

Using count from itertools is great for this:

>>> import itertools
>>> counter = itertools.count()
>>> a = next(counter)
>>> print a
0
>>> print next(counter)
1
>>> print next(counter)
2
>>> class A(object):
...   id_generator = itertools.count(100) # first generated is 100
...   def __init__(self):
...     self.id = next(self.id_generator)
>>> objs = [A(), A()]
>>> print objs[0].id, objs[1].id
100 101
>>> print next(counter) # each instance is independent
3

The same interface works if you later need to change how the values are generated, you just change the definition of id_generator.