Copy constructor in python?

Question

Is there a copy constructor in python ? If not what would I do to achieve something similar ?

The situation is that I am using a library and I have extended one of t

Answer 1

In python the copy constructor can be defined using default arguments. Lets say you want the normal constructor to run the function non_copy_constructor(self) and the copy constructor should run copy_constructor(self, orig). Then you can do the following:

class Foo:
    def __init__(self, orig=None):
        if orig is None:
            self.non_copy_constructor()
        else:
            self.copy_constructor(orig)
    def non_copy_constructor(self):
        # do the non-copy constructor stuff
    def copy_constructor(self, orig):
        # do the copy constructor

a=Foo()  # this will call the non-copy constructor
b=Foo(a) # this will call the copy constructor