python __init__ method in inherited class

Question

I would like to give a daughter class some extra attributes without having to explicitly call a new method. So is there a way of giving the inherited class an __init__

Answer 1

It's incredibly simple. Define a new __init__ method and call the parent's __init__ at the beginning.

# assuming a class Base, its __init__ takes one parameter x

class Derived(Base):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        # whatever initialization is needed so we can say Derived is-a Base
        super(Derived, self).__init__(x)
        # now, add whatever makes Derived special - do your own initialization
        self.y = y

In Python 3, you don't have to (and therefore propably shouldn't, for simplicity) explicitly inherit from object or pass the class and self to super.