Understanding Python super() with __init__() methods

Why is super() used?

Is there a difference between using Base.__init__ and super().__init__?

class Base(object):
    def __init__(self):
        print "Base created"
        
class ChildA(Base):
    def __init__(self):
        Base.__init__(self)
        
class ChildB(Base):
    def __init__(self):
        super(ChildB, self).__init__()
        
ChildA() 
ChildB()

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.

Stack Overflow Q#576169, score: 2378