How to create a class with multiple inheritance

Question

I have this code:

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.last_name = last_name
        self.age = age 

class Student(Person):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes):
        super().__init__(name, last_name, age)
        self.indexNr = indexNr
        self.notes = notes

class Employee(Person):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, salary, position):
        super().__init__(name, last_name, age)
        self.salary = salary
        self.position = position

class WorkingStudent(Student, Employee):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes, salary, position):
        Student.__init__(name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes)
        Employee.__init__(name, last_name, age, salary, position)

I want to create a WorkingStudent instance like this:

ws = WorkingStudent("john", "brown", 18, 1, [1,2,3], 1000, 'Programmer')

but it's not working, I get this error:

TypeError: __init__() missing 1 required positional argument: 'notes'

Or what I am doing wrong here? Also, I have already tried super() in WorkingStudent class but it calls only the constructor of the first passed class. i.e in this case Student

Note: I have already gone through multiple StackOverflow queries but I couldn't find anything that could answer this. (or maybe I have missed).

Answer 1

Instead of explicit classes, use super() to pass arguments along the mro:

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.last_name = last_name
        self.age = age 

class Student(Person):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes, salary, position):
        # since Employee comes after Student in the mro, pass its arguments using super
        super().__init__(name, last_name, age, salary, position)
        self.indexNr = indexNr
        self.notes = notes

class Employee(Person):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, salary, position):
        super().__init__(name, last_name, age)
        self.salary = salary
        self.position = position

class WorkingStudent(Student, Employee):
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes, salary, position):
        # pass all arguments along the mro
        super().__init__(name, last_name, age, indexNr, notes, salary, position)

# uses positional arguments            
ws = WorkingStudent("john", "brown", 18, 1, [1,2,3], 1000, 'Programmer')
# then you can print stuff like
print(f"My name is {ws.name} {ws.last_name}. I'm a {ws.position} and I'm {ws.age} years old.")
# My name is john brown. I'm a Programmer and I'm 18 years old.

Check mro:

WorkingStudent.__mro__
(__main__.WorkingStudent,
 __main__.Student,
 __main__.Employee,
 __main__.Person,
 object)

---

When you create an instance of WorkingStudent, it's better if you pass keyword arguments so that you don't have to worry about messing up the order of arguments.

Since WorkingStudent defers the definition of attributes to parent classes, immediately pass all arguments up the hierarchy using super().__init__(**kwargs) since a child class doesn't need to know about the parameters it doesn't handle. The first parent class is Student, so self.IndexNr etc are defined there. The next parent class in the mro is Employee, so from Student, pass the remaining keyword arguments to it, using super().__init__(**kwargs) yet again. From Employee, define the attributes defined there and pass the rest along the mro (to Person) via super().__init__(**kwargs) yet again.

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, last_name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.last_name = last_name
        self.age = age 

class Student(Person):
    def __init__(self, indexNr, notes, **kwargs):
        # since Employee comes after Student in the mro, pass its arguments using super
        super().__init__(**kwargs)
        self.indexNr = indexNr
        self.notes = notes

class Employee(Person):
    def __init__(self, salary, position, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(**kwargs)
        self.salary = salary
        self.position = position

class WorkingStudent(Student, Employee):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        # pass all arguments along the mro
        super().__init__(**kwargs)

# keyword arguments (not positional arguments like the case above)
ws = WorkingStudent(name="john", last_name="brown", age=18, indexNr=1, notes=[1,2,3], salary=1000, position='Programmer')