Understanding Python super() with __init__() methods

super() lets you avoid referring to the base class explicitly, which can be nice. But the main advantage comes with multiple inheritance, where all sorts of fun stuff can happen. See the standard docs on super if you haven't already.

Note that the syntax changed in Python 3.0: you can just say super().__init__() instead of super(ChildB, self).__init__() which IMO is quite a bit nicer. The standard docs also refer to a guide to using super() which is quite explanatory.

It's been noted that in Python 3.0+ you can use

super().__init__()

to make your call, which is concise and does not require you to reference the parent OR class names explicitly, which can be handy. I just want to add that for Python 2.7 or under, some people implement a name-insensitive behaviour by writing self.__class__ instead of the class name, i.e.

super(self.__class__, self).__init__()  # DON'T DO THIS!

HOWEVER, this breaks calls to super for any classes that inherit from your class, where self.__class__ could return a child class. For example:

class Polygon(object):
    def __init__(self, id):
        self.id = id

class Rectangle(Polygon):
    def __init__(self, id, width, height):
        super(self.__class__, self).__init__(id)
        self.shape = (width, height)

class Square(Rectangle):
    pass

Here I have a class Square, which is a sub-class of Rectangle. Say I don't want to write a separate constructor for Square because the constructor for Rectangle is good enough, but for whatever reason I want to implement a Square so I can reimplement some other method.

When I create a Square using mSquare = Square('a', 10,10), Python calls the constructor for Rectangle because I haven't given Square its own constructor. However, in the constructor for Rectangle, the call super(self.__class__,self) is going to return the superclass of mSquare, so it calls the constructor for Rectangle again. This is how the infinite loop happens, as was mentioned by @S_C. In this case, when I run super(...).__init__() I am calling the constructor for Rectangle but since I give it no arguments, I will get an error.

Super has no side effects

Base = ChildB

Base()

works as expected

Base = ChildA

Base()

gets into infinite recursion.

Just a heads up... with Python 2.7, and I believe ever since super() was introduced in version 2.2, you can only call super() if one of the parents inherit from a class that eventually inherits object (new-style classes).

Personally, as for python 2.7 code, I'm going to continue using BaseClassName.__init__(self, args) until I actually get the advantage of using super().