Class inheritance in python

Question

I am solving this problem :

Consider the following hierarchy of classes:

class Person(object):     
    def __init__(self, name):         
        self.name = name     
    def say(self, stuff):         
        return self.name + ' says: ' + stuff     
    def __str__(self):         
        return self.name  

class Lecturer(Person):     
    def lecture(self, stuff):         
        return 'I believe that ' + Person.say(self, stuff)  

class Professor(Lecturer): 
    def say(self, stuff): 
        return self.name + ' says: ' + self.lecture(stuff)

class ArrogantProfessor(Professor): 
    def say(self, stuff): 
        return 'It is obvious that ' + self.say(stuff)

As written, this code leads to an infinite loop when using the Arrogant Professor class.

Change the definition of ArrogantProfessor so that the following behavior is achieved:

e = Person('eric') 
le = Lecturer('eric') 
pe = Professor('eric') 
ae = ArrogantProfessor('eric')

e.say('the sky is blue')              #returns   eric says: the sky is blue

le.say('the sky is blue')             #returns   eric says: the sky is blue

le.lecture('the sky is blue')         #returns   believe that eric says: the sky is blue

pe.say('the sky is blue')             #returns   eric says: I believe that eric says: the sky is blue

pe.lecture('the sky is blue')     #returns   believe that eric says: the sky is blue

ae.say('the sky is blue')         #returns   eric says: It is obvious that eric says: the sky is blue

ae.lecture('the sky is blue')     #returns   It is obvious that eric says: the sky is blue

My solution to this is:

class ArrogantProfessor(Person):
    def say(self, stuff):
        return Person.say(self, ' It is obvious that ') +  Person.say(self,stuff)
    def lecture(self, stuff):
        return 'It is obvious that  ' + Person.say(self, stuff)

But the checker gives only half marks for this solution. What is the mistake that I am making and what are the test cases on which this code fails? (I am new to python and learned about classes some time ago.)

Answer 1

You probably should use super() instead of hard-wiring the class Person:

class ArrogantProfessor(Person):
    def say(self, stuff):
        return super(ArrogantProfessor, self).say(self.lecture(stuff))
    def lecture(self, stuff):
        return 'It is obvious that ' + super(ArrogantProfessor, self).say(stuff)