The super() function in Python

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The super() function in Python is used to give access to methods and properties of a parent or sibling class. It allows you to call methods of the superclass in your subclass. The primary use case of super() is to extend the functionality of the inherited method.

Example: Using super() in Inheritance

Consider a base class Animal and a derived class Dog. We'll show how super() is used to call the constructor of the base class from the derived class.

class Animal:
    def __init__(self, animal_name):
        print("Animal constructor is called")
        self.name = animal_name

    def sound(self):
        return "Animal makes a sound"

class Dog(Animal):
    def __init__(self, name):
        print("Dog constructor is called")
        super().__init__(name)  # Calling the constructor of the Animal class

    def sound(self):
        original_sound = super().sound()  # Calling the sound method from the Animal class
        return f"{original_sound} but a dog barks"

# Creating an instance of Dog
dog = Dog("Buddy")
print(dog.name)  # Output: Buddy
print(dog.sound())  # Output: Animal makes a sound but a dog barks

In this example:

• Animal is a base class with a constructor that initializes the name attribute and a method sound.