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Python inheritance and polymorphism
Updated on Jan 07, 2020
Inheritance allows programmer to create a general class first then later extend it to more specialized class. It also allows programmer to write better code.
Using inheritance you can inherit all access data fields and methods, plus you can add your own methods and fields, thus inheritance provide a way to organize code, rather than rewriting it from scratch.
In object-oriented terminology when class
X extend class
Y is called super class or base class and
X is called subclass or derived class. One more point to note that only data fields and method which are not private are accessible by child classes, private data fields and methods are accessible only inside the class.
Syntax to create a subclass is:
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class SubClass(SuperClass): # data fields # instance methods
Let take an example to illustrate the point.
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class Vehicle: def __init__(self, name, color): self.__name = name # __name is private to Vehicle class self.__color = color def getColor(self): # getColor() function is accessible to class Car return self.__color def setColor(self, color): # setColor is accessible outside the class self.__color = color def getName(self): # getName() is accessible outside the class return self.__name class Car(Vehicle): def __init__(self, name, color, model): # call parent constructor to set name and color super().__init__(name, color) self.__model = model def getDescription(self): return self.getName() + self.__model + " in " + self.getColor() + " color" # in method getDescrition we are able to call getName(), getColor() because they are # accessible to child class through inheritance c = Car("Ford Mustang", "red", "GT350") print(c.getDescription()) print(c.getName()) # car has no method getName() but it is accessible through class Vehicle
Ford MustangGT350 in red color Ford Mustang
Here we have created base class
Vehicle and it's subclass
Car. Notice that we have not defined
getName() in the
Car class but we are still able to access it, because the class
Car inherits it from the
Vehicle class. In the above code
super() method is used to call method of the base class. Here is the how
Suppose you need to call a method called
get_information() in the base class from child class , you can do so using the following code.
Similarly, you can call base class constructor from child class constructor using the following code.
Multiple inheritance #
Unlike languages like Java and C#, python allows multiple inheritance i.e you can inherit from multiple classes at the same time like this,
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class Subclass(SuperClass1, SuperClass2, ...): # initializer # methods
Let's take an example:
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class MySuperClass1(): def method_super1(self): print("method_super1 method called") class MySuperClass2(): def method_super2(self): print("method_super2 method called") class ChildClass(MySuperClass1, MySuperClass2): def child_method(self): print("child method") c = ChildClass() c.method_super1() c.method_super2()
method_super1 method called method_super2 method called
As you can see becuase
MySuperClass2, object of
ChildClass is now able to access
Overriding methods #
To override a method in the base class, sub class needs to define a method of same signature. (i.e same method name and same number of parameters as method in base class).
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class A(): def __init__(self): self.__x = 1 def m1(self): print("m1 from A") class B(A): def __init__(self): self.__y = 1 def m1(self): print("m1 from B") c = B() c.m1()
m1 from B
Here we are overriding
m1() method from the base class. Try commenting
m1() method in
B class and now
m1() method from
Base class i.e class
A will run.
m1 from A
isinstance() function #
isinstance() function is used to determine whether the object is an instance of the class or not.
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>>> isinstance(1, int) True >>> isinstance(1.2, int) False >>> isinstance([1,2,3,4], list) True
Next chapter Exception Handling.
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