Inheritance in Python
Inheritance is the capability of one class to derive or inherit the properties from another class. The benefits of inheritance are:
- It represents real-world relationships well.
- It provides reusability of a code. We don’t have to write the same code again and again. Also, it allows us to add more features to a class without modifying it.
- It is transitive in nature, which means that if class B inherits from another class A, then all the subclasses of B would automatically inherit from class A.
Below is a simple example of inheritance in Python
# A Python program to demonstrate inheritance # Base or Super class. Note object in bracket.# (Generally, object is made ancestor of all classes)# In Python 3.x "class Person" is # equivalent to "class Person(object)"class Person(object): # Constructor def __init__(self, name): self.name = name # To get name def getName(self): return self.name # To check if this person is an employee def isEmployee(self): return False # Inherited or Subclass (Note Person in bracket)class Employee(Person): # Here we return true def isEmployee(self): return True # Driver codeemp = Person("Geek1") # An Object of Personprint(emp.getName(), emp.isEmployee()) emp = Employee("Geek2") # An Object of Employeeprint(emp.getName(), emp.isEmployee()) |
Output:
Geek1 False Geek2 True
What is object class?
Like Java Object class, in Python (from version 3.x), object is root of all classes.
In Python 3.x, “class Test(object)” and “class Test” are same.
In Python 2.x, “class Test(object)” creates a class with object as parent (called new style class) and “class Test” creates old style class (without object parent). Refer this for more details.
Subclassing (Calling constructor of parent class)
A child class needs to identify which class is its parent class. This can be done by mentioning the parent class name in the definition of the child class.
Eg: class subclass_name (superclass_name):
_ _ _
_ _ _
# Python code to demonstrate how parent constructors# are called. # parent classclass Person( object ): # __init__ is known as the constructor def __init__(self, name, idnumber): self.name = name self.idnumber = idnumber def display(self): print(self.name) print(self.idnumber) # child classclass Employee( Person ): def __init__(self, name, idnumber, salary, post): self.salary = salary self.post = post # invoking the __init__ of the parent class Person.__init__(self, name, idnumber) # creation of an object variable or an instancea = Employee('Rahul', 886012, 200000, "Intern") # calling a function of the class Person using its instancea.display() |
Output:
Rahul 886012
‘a’ is the instance created for the class Person. It invokes the __init__() of the referred class. You can see ‘object’ written in the declaration of the class Person. In Python, every class inherits from a built-in basic class called ‘object’. The constructor i.e. the ‘__init__’ function of a class is invoked when we create an object variable or an instance of the class.
The variables defined within __init__() are called as the instance variables or objects. Hence, ‘name’ and ‘idnumber’ are the objects of the class Person. Similarly, ‘salary’ and ‘post’ are the objects of the class Employee. Since the class Employee inherits from class Person, ‘name’ and ‘idnumber’ are also the objects of class Employee.
If you forget to invoke the __init__() of the parent class then its instance variables would not be available to the child class.
The following code produces an error for the same reason.
- Python3
# Python program to demonstrate error if we# forget to invoke __init__() of the parent. class A: def __init__(self, n = 'Rahul'): self.name = nclass B(A): def __init__(self, roll): self.roll = roll object = B(23)print (object.name) |
Output :
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/de4570cca20263ac2c4149f435dba22c.py", line 12, in
print (object.name)
AttributeError: 'B' object has no attribute 'name'
Different forms of Inheritance:
1. Single inheritance: When a child class inherits from only one parent class, it is called single inheritance. We saw an example above.
2. Multiple inheritance: When a child class inherits from multiple parent classes, it is called multiple inheritance.
Unlike Java and like C++, Python supports multiple inheritance. We specify all parent classes as a comma-separated list in the bracket.
- Python
# Python example to show the working of multiple # inheritanceclass Base1(object): def __init__(self): self.str1 = "Geek1" print("Base1") class Base2(object): def __init__(self): self.str2 = "Geek2" print("Base2") class Derived(Base1, Base2): def __init__(self): # Calling constructors of Base1 # and Base2 classes Base1.__init__(self) Base2.__init__(self) print("Derived") def printStrs(self): print(self.str1, self.str2) ob = Derived()ob.printStrs() |
Output:
Base1 Base2 Derived Geek1 Geek2
3. Multilevel inheritance: When we have a child and grandchild relationship.
- Python3
# A Python program to demonstrate inheritance # Base or Super class. Note object in bracket.# (Generally, object is made ancestor of all classes)# In Python 3.x "class Person" is # equivalent to "class Person(object)"class Base(object): # Constructor def __init__(self, name): self.name = name # To get name def getName(self): return self.name # Inherited or Sub class (Note Person in bracket)class Child(Base): # Constructor def __init__(self, name, age): Base.__init__(self, name) self.age = age # To get name def getAge(self): return self.age # Inherited or Sub class (Note Person in bracket)class GrandChild(Child): # Constructor def __init__(self, name, age, address): Child.__init__(self, name, age) self.address = address # To get address def getAddress(self): return self.address # Driver codeg = GrandChild("Geek1", 23, "Noida") print(g.getName(), g.getAge(), g.getAddress()) |
Output:
Geek1 23 Noida
4. Hierarchical inheritance More than one derived classes are created from a single base.
5. Hybrid inheritance: This form combines more than one form of inheritance. Basically, it is a blend of more than one type of inheritance.
Private members of parent class
We don’t always want the instance variables of the parent class to be inherited by the child class i.e. we can make some of the instance variables of the parent class private, which won’t be available to the child class.
We can make an instance variable by adding double underscores before its name. For example,
- Python3
# Python program to demonstrate private members# of the parent classclass C(object): def __init__(self): self.c = 21 # d is private instance variable self.__d = 42class D(C): def __init__(self): self.e = 84 C.__init__(self)object1 = D() # produces an error as d is private instance variableprint(object1.d) |
Output :
File "/home/993bb61c3e76cda5bb67bd9ea05956a1.py", line 16, in
print (object1.d)
AttributeError: type object 'D' has no attribute 'd'
Since ‘d’ is made private by those underscores, it is not available to the child class ‘D’ and hence the error.
Last Updated on October 25, 2021 by admin