Avoid specifying all arguments in a subclass

Question

I have a class:

class A(object):
    def __init__(self,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,...........,x,y,z)
        #do some init stuff

And I have a subclass w

Answer 1

Are you wanting something like this?

class A(object):
    def __init__(self, a, b, c, d, e, f, g):
        # do stuff
        print a, d, g

class B(A):
    def __init__(self, *args):
        args = list(args)
        self.__W = args.pop()
        A.__init__(self, *args)

Answer 2

Considering that arguments could be passed either by name or by position, I'd code:

class B(A):
    def __init__(self, *a, **k):
      if 'W' in k:
        w = k.pop('W')
      else:
        w = a.pop()
      A.__init__(self, *a, **k)
      self._W = w

Answer 3

Edit: based on Matt's suggestion, and to address gnibbler's concern re a positional-argument approach; you might check to make sure that the additional subclass-specific argument is being specified—similar to Alex's answer:

class B(A):
  def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    try:
      self._w = kwargs.pop('w')
    except KeyError:
      pass
    super(B,self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

>>> b = B(1,2,w=3)
>>> b.a
1
>>> b.b
2
>>> b._w
3

Original answer:
Same idea as Matt's answer, using super() instead.

Use super() to call superclass's __init__() method, then continue initialising the subclass:

class A(object):
  def __init__(self, a, b):
    self.a = a
    self.b = b

class B(A):
  def __init__(self, w, *args):
    super(B,self).__init__(*args)
    self.w = w

Answer 4

In situations where some or all of the arguments passed to __init__ have default values, it can be useful to avoid repeating the __init__ method signature in subclasses.

In these cases, __init__ can pass any extra arguments to another method, which subclasses can override:

class A(object):
    def __init__(self, a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, *args, **kwargs):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b
        # …
        self._init_extra(*args, **kwargs)

    def _init_extra(self):
        """
        Subclasses can override this method to support extra
        __init__ arguments.
        """

        pass


class B(A):
    def _init_extra(self, w):
        self.w = w