Python __init__ syntax

Question

While learning Python I\'m having some confusion over the syntax of the initialization of classes using inheritance. In various examples I\'ve seen something like the following

Answer 1

In your example the variable "parent" is misleading. Simply the parent class COULD require additional arguments that must be provided

class Pet:
    def __init__(self,name):
        self.name = name

class Dog(Pet):
    def __init__(self,name,age):
        Pet.__init__(self,name)
        self.age = age

In this example the parent class Pet requires an attribute (name), and the child class provides it

As pointed out, use "super" syntax to call parent classes methods

Answer 2

Generally passing parent is not something that's required, only when the parent class's constructor explicitly needs such an argument. This is used in some hierarchies, such as PyQt.

And a good idiom of parent class initialization is to use super:

class Child(Father):
  def __init__(self):
    super(Child, self).__init__()