How to implement virtual methods in Python?
raise NotImplementedError()
This is the recommended exception to raise on "pure virtual methods" of "abstract" base classes that don't implement a method.
https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/exceptions.html#NotImplementedError says:
This exception is derived from
RuntimeError
. In user defined base classes, abstract methods should raise this exception when they require derived classes to override the method.
As others said, this is mostly a documentation convention and is not required, but this way you get a more meaningful exception than a missing attribute error.
E.g.:
class Base(object):
def virtualMethod(self):
raise NotImplementedError()
def usesVirtualMethod(self):
return self.virtualMethod() + 1
class Derived(Base):
def virtualMethod(self):
return 1
print Derived().usesVirtualMethod()
Base().usesVirtualMethod()
gives:
2
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./a.py", line 13, in <module>
Base().usesVirtualMethod()
File "./a.py", line 6, in usesVirtualMethod
return self.virtualMethod() + 1
File "./a.py", line 4, in virtualMethod
raise NotImplementedError()
NotImplementedError
Related: Is it possible to make abstract classes in Python?
Python methods are always virtual.
Sure, and you don't even have to define a method in the base class. In Python methods are better than virtual - they're completely dynamic, as the typing in Python is duck typing.
class Dog:
def say(self):
print "hau"
class Cat:
def say(self):
print "meow"
pet = Dog()
pet.say() # prints "hau"
another_pet = Cat()
another_pet.say() # prints "meow"
my_pets = [pet, another_pet]
for a_pet in my_pets:
a_pet.say()
Cat
and Dog
in Python don't even have to derive from a common base class to allow this behavior - you gain it for free. That said, some programmers prefer to define their class hierarchies in a more rigid way to document it better and impose some strictness of typing. This is also possible - see for example the abc
standard module.