The following use of super()
raises a TypeError: why?
>>> from HTMLParser import HTMLParser >>> class TextParser(HTMLParser): ... def __init__(self): ... super(TextParser, self).__init__() ... self.all_data = [] ... >>> TextParser() (...) TypeError: must be type, not classobj
There is a similar question on StackOverflow: Python super() raises TypeError, where the error is explained by the fact that the user class is not a new-style class. However, the class above is a new-style class, as it inherits from object
:
>>> isinstance(HTMLParser(), object) True
What am I missing? How can I use super()
, here?
Using HTMLParser.__init__(self)
instead of super(TextParser, self).__init__()
would work, but I would like to understand the TypeError.
PS: Joachim pointed out that being a new-style-class instance is not equivalent to being an object
. I read the opposite many times, hence my confusion (example of new-style class instance test based on object
instance test: https://stackoverflow.com/revisions/2655651/3).
Alright, it's the usual "super()
cannot be used with an old-style class".
However, the important point is that the correct test for "is this a new-style instance (i.e. object)?" is
>>> class OldStyle: pass >>> instance = OldStyle() >>> issubclass(instance.__class__, object) False
and not (as in the question):
>>> isinstance(instance, object) True
For classes, the correct "is this a new-style class" test is:
>>> issubclass(OldStyle, object) # OldStyle is not a new-style class False >>> issubclass(int, object) # int is a new-style class True
The crucial point is that with old-style classes, the class of an instance and its type are distinct. Here, OldStyle().__class__
is OldStyle
, which does not inherit from object
, while type(OldStyle())
is the instance
type, which does inherit from object
. Basically, an old-style class just creates objects of type instance
(whereas a new-style class creates objects whose type is the class itself). This is probably why the instance OldStyle()
is an object
: its type()
inherits from object
(the fact that its class does not inherit from object
does not count: old-style classes merely construct new objects of type instance
). Partial reference: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9699961/42973.
PS: The difference between a new-style class and an old-style one can also be seen with:
>>> type(OldStyle) # OldStyle creates objects but is not itself a type classobj >>> isinstance(OldStyle, type) False >>> type(int) # A new-style class is a type type
(old-style classes are not types, so they cannot be the type of their instances).
super() can be used only in the new-style classes, which means the root class needs to inherit from the 'object' class.
For example, the top class need to be like this:
class SomeClass(object): def __init__(self): ....
not
class SomeClass(): def __init__(self): ....
So, the solution is that call the parent's init method directly, like this way:
class TextParser(HTMLParser): def __init__(self): HTMLParser.__init__(self) self.all_data = []
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