Should __init__() call the parent class's __init__()?

Question

I\'m used that in Objective-C I\'ve got this construct:

- (void)init {
    if (self = [super init]) {
        // init class
    }
    return self;
}
<         


        

Answer 1

Yes, you should always call base class __init__ explicitly as a good coding practice. Forgetting to do this can cause subtle issues or run time errors. This is true even if __init__ doesn't take any parameters. This is unlike other languages where compiler would implicitly call base class constructor for you. Python doesn't do that!

The main reason for always calling base class _init__ is that base class may typically create member variable and initialize them to defaults. So if you don't call base class init, none of that code would be executed and you would end up with base class that has no member variables.

Example:

class Base:
  def __init__(self):
    print('base init')

class Derived1(Base):
  def __init__(self):
    print('derived1 init')

class Derived2(Base):
  def __init__(self):
    super(Derived2, self).__init__()
    print('derived2 init')

print('Creating Derived1...')
d1 = Derived1()
print('Creating Derived2...')
d2 = Derived2()

This prints..

Creating Derived1...
derived1 init
Creating Derived2...
base init
derived2 init

Run this code.