What is a clean, pythonic way to have multiple constructors in Python?

Question

I can\'t find a definitive answer for this. As far as I know, you can\'t have multiple __init__ functions in a Python class. So how do I solve this problem?

Answer 1

This is how I solved it for a YearQuarter class I had to create. I created an __init__ which is very tolerant to a wide variety of input.

You use it like this:

>>> from datetime import date
>>> temp1 = YearQuarter(year=2017, month=12)
>>> print temp1
2017-Q4
>>> temp2 = YearQuarter(temp1)
>>> print temp2
2017-Q4
>>> temp3 = YearQuarter((2017, 6))
>>> print temp3
2017-Q2 
>>> temp4 = YearQuarter(date(2017, 1, 18))
>>> print temp4
2017-Q1
>>> temp5 = YearQuarter(year=2017, quarter = 3)
>>> print temp5
2017-Q3

And this is how the __init__ and the rest of the class looks like:

import datetime


class YearQuarter:

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if len(args) == 1:
            [x]     = args

            if isinstance(x, datetime.date):
                self._year      = int(x.year)
                self._quarter   = (int(x.month) + 2) / 3
            elif isinstance(x, tuple):
                year, month     = x

                self._year      = int(year)

                month           = int(month)

                if 1 <= month <= 12:
                    self._quarter   = (month + 2) / 3
                else:
                    raise ValueError

            elif isinstance(x, YearQuarter):
                self._year      = x._year
                self._quarter   = x._quarter

        elif len(args) == 2:
            year, month     = args

            self._year      = int(year)

            month           = int(month)

            if 1 <= month <= 12:
                self._quarter   = (month + 2) / 3
            else:
                raise ValueError

        elif kwargs:

            self._year      = int(kwargs["year"])

            if "quarter" in kwargs:
                quarter     = int(kwargs["quarter"])

                if 1 <= quarter <= 4:
                    self._quarter     = quarter
                else:
                    raise ValueError
            elif "month" in kwargs:
                month   = int(kwargs["month"])

                if 1 <= month <= 12:
                    self._quarter     = (month + 2) / 3
                else:
                    raise ValueError

    def __str__(self):
        return '{0}-Q{1}'.format(self._year, self._quarter)

Answer 2

Why do you think your solution is "clunky"? Personally I would prefer one constructor with default values over multiple overloaded constructors in situations like yours (Python does not support method overloading anyway):

def __init__(self, num_holes=None):
    if num_holes is None:
        # Construct a gouda
    else:
        # custom cheese
    # common initialization

For really complex cases with lots of different constructors, it might be cleaner to use different factory functions instead:

@classmethod
def create_gouda(cls):
    c = Cheese()
    # ...
    return c

@classmethod
def create_cheddar(cls):
    # ...

In your cheese example you might want to use a Gouda subclass of Cheese though...

Answer 3

The best answer is the one above about default arguments, but I had fun writing this, and it certainly does fit the bill for "multiple constructors". Use at your own risk.

What about the new method.

"Typical implementations create a new instance of the class by invoking the superclass’s new() method using super(currentclass, cls).new(cls[, ...]) with appropriate arguments and then modifying the newly-created instance as necessary before returning it."

So you can have the new method modify your class definition by attaching the appropriate constructor method.

class Cheese(object):
    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):

        obj = super(Cheese, cls).__new__(cls)
        num_holes = kwargs.get('num_holes', random_holes())

        if num_holes == 0:
            cls.__init__ = cls.foomethod
        else:
            cls.__init__ = cls.barmethod

        return obj

    def foomethod(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print "foomethod called as __init__ for Cheese"

    def barmethod(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print "barmethod called as __init__ for Cheese"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    parm = Cheese(num_holes=5)

Answer 4

One should definitely prefer the solutions already posted, but since no one mentioned this solution yet, I think it is worth mentioning for completeness.

The @classmethod approach can be modified to provide an alternative constructor which does not invoke the default constructor (__init__). Instead, an instance is created using __new__.

This could be used if the type of initialization cannot be selected based on the type of the constructor argument, and the constructors do not share code.

Example:

class MyClass(set):

    def __init__(self, filename):
        self._value = load_from_file(filename)

    @classmethod
    def from_somewhere(cls, somename):
        obj = cls.__new__(cls)  # Does not call __init__
        super(MyClass, obj).__init__()  # Don't forget to call any polymorphic base class initializers
        obj._value = load_from_somewhere(somename)
        return obj

Answer 5

Actually None is much better for "magic" values:

class Cheese():
    def __init__(self, num_holes = None):
        if num_holes is None:
            ...

Now if you want complete freedom of adding more parameters:

class Cheese():
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        #args -- tuple of anonymous arguments
        #kwargs -- dictionary of named arguments
        self.num_holes = kwargs.get('num_holes',random_holes())

To better explain the concept of *args and **kwargs (you can actually change these names):

def f(*args, **kwargs):
   print 'args: ', args, ' kwargs: ', kwargs

>>> f('a')
args:  ('a',)  kwargs:  {}
>>> f(ar='a')
args:  ()  kwargs:  {'ar': 'a'}
>>> f(1,2,param=3)
args:  (1, 2)  kwargs:  {'param': 3}

http://docs.python.org/reference/expressions.html#calls

Answer 6

Use num_holes=None as a default, instead. Then check for whether num_holes is None, and if so, randomize. That's what I generally see, anyway.

More radically different construction methods may warrant a classmethod that returns an instance of cls.