Ensuring Super Class Initialization

Seemingly a very simple concept: how do you guarantee that when someone sub-classes your Python class that your constructor ( __init__() ) runs? The straightforward method contains a trap:

  

class Base(object):  
   def __init__(self):
      print "foo"

class Sub(Base):
   def __init__(self): 
      print "bar"

When the Sub class' initialize method is executed it squashes the Base class'. What we want is for both to be called:

  
class Sub(Base):
   def __init__(self):
      Base.__init__(self)
      print "bar"

Unfortunately, we can't make the person extending our class call the super class. A poor man's factory pattern  alleviates the possibility of subtype implementers forgetting initialization. Consider:

class AbstractClass(object):
    '''Abstract base class template, implementing factory pattern through 
       use of the __new__() initializer. Factory method supports trivial, 
       argumented, & keyword argument constructors of arbitrary length.'''

   __slots__ = ["baseProperty"]
   '''Slots define [template] abstract class attributes. No instance
       __dict__ will be present unless subclasses create it through 
       implicit attribute definition in __init__() '''

   def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
       '''Factory method for base/subtype creation. Simply creates an
       (new-style class) object instance and sets a base property. '''
       instance = object.__new__(cls)

       instance.baseProperty = "Thingee"
       return instance

This base class can be extended trivially, using only three (3) lines of code san-commment, as follows:

class Sub(AbstractClass):
   '''Subtype template implements AbstractClass base type and adds
      its own 'foo' attribute. Note (though poor style, that __slots__
      and __dict__ style attributes may be mixed.'''

   def __init__(self):
       '''Subtype initializer. Sets 'foo' attribute. '''
       self.foo = "bar"

Note that though we didn't call the super-class' constructor, the baseProperty will be initialized:

Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Jun 24 2010, 21:47:49) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from TestFactory import *
>>> s = Sub()
>>> s.foo
'bar'
>>> s.baseProperty
'Thingee'
>>> 

As its comment indicates, the base class AbstractClass need not use slots, it could just as easily 'implicitly' define attributes by setting them in its new() initializer. For instance:

instance.otherBaseProperty = "Thingee2"

would work fine. Also note that the base class' initializer supports trivial (no-arg) initializers in its subtypes, as well as variable-length arugmented and keyword argument initializers. I recommend always using this form as it doesn't impose syntax in the simplest (trivial constructor) case but allows for the more complex functionality without imposing maintenance.