inheritance.md

Inheritance

Classes can extend other classes. In that case, the subclass (the inheriting one) will have all the attributes and methods of the other class.

A subclass can also replace attributes methods of the superclass. If you want to use both inherited and new

The most important design principle when using inheritance is Liskovs Substitution Principle. It says that you should be able to use a subclass instead of its superclass.

The second important design principle is to avoid excessive subclassing. Most of the time Object Composition is the better idea.

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Example

Here you find an example using the Account class defined earlier.

:::python3
class SavingsAccount(Account):

    def __init__(self, owner, start_balance=0, interest_rate=1.0):
        super().__init__(owner, start_balance)
        self.interest_rate = interest_rate

    def add_interest(self):
        self.balance *= self.interest_rate

    def withdraw(self, amount):  # replaces Account.withdraw
        print('**extra identification approved**')
        super().withdraw(amount)

Using the subclass is very similar to using the superclass:

:::python3
b = SavingsAccount('Betty', 100, interest_rate=1.03)
print(b)

b.deposit(100)  # calls Account.deposit()
print(b)        # calls Account.__repr__()

b.add_interest()  # calls SavingsAccount.add_interest()
print(b)

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Abstract Base Classes

If you want to use inheritance but not allow instances of the superclass, you can use the ABC Metaclass. With ABCMeta, you need to create a subclass that overwrites all abstract methods and properties:

:::python3
from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod, abstractproperty

class AbstractAnimal(metaclass=ABCMeta):

    @abstractmethod
    def make_noise(self):
        pass

    # an abstract read-only-property
    @abstractproperty
    def species(self):
        pass

    # abstract read/write property
    def getname(self):
        pass

    def setname(self, value):
        pass

    name = abstractproperty(getname, setname)

    # non-abstract method
    def is_alive(self):
        return True

Exercise

Implement the Dog class so that the code below runs.

:::python3
class Dog(AbstractAnimal):

    ...

rex = Dog()
rex.name = 'Rex'
print(rex.is_alive())
rex.make_noise()
print(rex.species())