Python __call__ special method practical example

Question

I know that __call__ method in a class is triggered when the instance of a class is called. However, I have no idea when I can use this special method, because

Answer 1

One common example is the __call__ in functools.partial, here is a simplified version (with Python >= 3.5):

class partial:
    """New function with partial application of the given arguments and keywords."""

    def __new__(cls, func, *args, **kwargs):
        if not callable(func):
            raise TypeError("the first argument must be callable")
        self = super().__new__(cls)

        self.func = func
        self.args = args
        self.kwargs = kwargs
        return self

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.func(*self.args, *args, **self.kwargs, **kwargs)

Usage:

def add(x, y):
    return x + y

inc = partial(add, y=1)
print(inc(41))  # 42