Let me start with this is not a repeat of
Why does __init__ not get called if __new__ called with no args. I have tried to carefully construct some sample code for __new__
and __init__
that has no explanation I can find.
The basic parameters:
- There is a base class called NotMine as it comes from another library (I'll disclose at the end, not important here)
- That class has an
__init__
method that in turn calls a _parse
method
- I need to override the
_parse
method in subclasses
- which subclass I'm creating is not known until invocation
- I know there are factory design methods but I cannot use them here (More at the end)
- I have tried to make careful use of
super
to avoid the problems in
Python logging: Why is __init__ called twice?
- I know this is also 'kind of' an AbstractBaseMehtod opportunity but that did not help
Anyway, __init__
should be called after __new__
and for every explanation of why SOME samples below don't work I seem to be able to point to other cases that do work and rule out the explanation.
class NotMine(object):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
print "NotMine __init__"
self._parse()
def _parse(self):
print "NotMine _parse"
class ABC(NotMine):
def __new__(cls,name,*args, **kwargs):
print "-"*80
print "Entered through the front door ABC.__new__(%s,%s,*%s,**%s)"%(cls,name,args,kwargs)
if name == 'AA':
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(AA,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 1 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
return obj
elif name == 'BB':
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(BB,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 2 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
return obj
else:
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(cls,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 3 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
return obj
class AA(ABC):
def _parse(self):
print "AA _parse"
class BB(ABC):
def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
print "BB_init:*%s, **%s"%(args,kw)
super(BB,self).__init__(self,*args,**kw)
def _parse(self):
print "BB _parse"
class CCC(AA):
def _parse(self):
print "CCCC _parse"
print("########### Starting with ABC always calls __init__ ############")
ABC("AA") # case 1
ABC("BB") # case 2
ABC("NOT_AA_OR_BB") # case 3
print("########### These also all call __init__ ############")
AA("AA") # case 4
BB("BB") # case 5
AA("NOT_AA_OR_BB") # case 6
BB("NOT_AA_OR_BB") # case 7
CCC("ANYTHING") # case 8
print("########### WHY DO THESE NOT CALL __init__ ############")
AA("BB") # case 9
BB("AA") # case 10
CCC("BB") # case 11
If you execute the code, you can see that for each call to __new__
it announces "which door" it is exiting through and with what type. I can exit the same "door" with the same "type" object and have __init__
called in one case and not the other. I've looked at the mro of the "calling" class and that offers no insight since I can invoke that class ( or a subcass as in CCC ) and have __init__
called.
End Notes:
The NotMine
library I'm using is the Genshi MarkupTemplate and the reason for not using a Factory design method is that their TemplateLoader needs a defaultClass to construct. I don't know until I start parsing, which I do in __new__
. There is a lot of cool voodoo magic that genshi loaders and templates do that make this worth the effort.
I can run an unmodified instance of their loader and currently everything works as long as I ONLY pass the ABC (abstract sort-of-factory) class as the default. Things are working well but this unexplained behavior is an almost certain bug later.
UPDATE:
Ignacio, nailed the top line question, if the returned object is not an "instance of" cls then __init__
is not called. I do find that calling the "constructor" (e.g. AA(args..)
is wrong as it will call __new__
again and you are right back where you started. You could modify an arg to take a different path. That just means you call ABC.__new__
twice rather than infinitely. A working solution is to edit class ABC
above as:
class ABC(NotMine):
def __new__(cls,name,*args, **kwargs):
print "-"*80
print "Entered through the front door ABC.__new__(%s,%s,*%s,**%s)"%(cls,name,args,kwargs)
if name == 'AA':
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(AA,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 1 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
elif name == 'BB':
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(BB,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 2 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
elif name == 'CCC':
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(CCC,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 3 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
else:
obj = super(NotMine,ABC).__new__(cls,*args,**kwargs)
print "Exiting door number 4 with an instance of: %s"%type(obj)
## Addition to decide who calls __init__ ##
if isinstance(obj,cls):
print "this IS an instance of %s So call your own dam __init__"%cls
return obj
print "this is NOT an instance of %s So __new__ will call __init__ for you"%cls
obj.__init__(name,*args, **kwargs)
return obj
print("########### now, these DO CALL __init__ ############")
AA("BB") # case 9
BB("AA") # case 10
CCC("BB") # case 11
Notice the last few lines. Not calling __init__
if it's a "different" class does not make sense to me, ESPECIALLY when the "different" class is still a subclass of the class calling __init__
. I don't like the above edit but least I get the rules a little better now.
See Question&Answers more detail:
os