Calling a base class's classmethod in Python
If you're using a new-style class (i.e. derives from object
in Python 2, or always in Python 3), you can do it with super()
like this:
super(Derived, cls).do(a)
This is how you would invoke the code in the base class's version of the method (i.e. print cls, a
), from the derived class, with cls
being set to the derived class.
this has been a while, but I think I may have found an answer. When you decorate a method to become a classmethod the original unbound method is stored in a property named 'im_func':
class Base(object):
@classmethod
def do(cls, a):
print cls, a
class Derived(Base):
@classmethod
def do(cls, a):
print 'In derived!'
# Base.do(cls, a) -- can't pass `cls`
Base.do.im_func(cls, a)
if __name__ == '__main__':
d = Derived()
d.do('hello')
Building on the answer from @David Z using:
super(Derived, cls).do(a)
Which can be further simplified to:
super(cls, cls).do(a)
I often use classmethods to provide alternative ways to construct my objects. In the example below I use the super functions as above for the class method load that alters the way that the objects are created:
class Base():
def __init__(self,a):
self.a = a
@classmethod
def load(cls,a):
return cls(a=a)
class SubBase(Base):
@classmethod
def load(cls,b):
a = b-1
return super(cls,cls).load(a=a)
base = Base.load(a=1)
print(base)
print(base.a)
sub = SubBase.load(b=3)
print(sub)
print(sub.a)
Output:
<__main__.Base object at 0x128E48B0>
1
<__main__.SubBase object at 0x128E4710>
2