Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Python Object-Oriented Python Inheritance Super-Duper!

Posted by Andrew McLane
Andrew McLane
3,385 Points

Doesn't __init__ redefined in the subclass override the super classes init?

Not sure why we have to redefine init in the subclass if we can just call it using the super() from the parent class. Also, if we want to modify our child's init why don't we just put whatever we want to happen in its own init, if that is overriding the parent's init.

I thought that the Thief class could act independently if none of the parent's classes were called but the video makes it sound like the parent's init is going to run in the child class immediately.

I guess I might have a fundamental confusion about what init is and how it initializes the class.

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points

You are correct that redifining __init__ overrides the parent. That's why you would call the parent's version using "super" from inside it.

And the reason for not making it completely independent is to keep the code "dry" and not duplicate functionality the the parent can perform already. The main reason to override __init__ and also call the parent version is to add some additional functionality and/or change the instantiation signature.