In various situations, we need a mechanism to Initialize all Sub classes for a given Super class. For instance, let’s assume that we have a Super class called ArithmeticOperation and another 4 classes derived from it (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division).
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class ArithmeticOperation(object): def __init__(self, x, y): self.x = x self.y = y def compute(self): # overload this method to compute pass pass class Addition(ArithmeticOperation): def compute(self): result = self.x + self.y print "Addition : {}".format(result) pass pass class Subtraction(ArithmeticOperation): def compute(self): result = self.x - self.y print "Subtraction : {}".format(result) pass pass class Multiplication(ArithmeticOperation): def compute(self): result = self.x * self.y print "Multiplication : {}".format(result) pass pass class Division(ArithmeticOperation): def compute(self): result = float(self.x) / float(self.y) print "Division : {}".format(result) pass pass |
One way of doing it is Initializing each Sub class separately.
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if __name__ == '__main__': num_1 = 20 num_2 = 10 a = Addition(num_1, num_2) a.compute() s = Subtraction(num_1, num_2) s.compute() m = Multiplication(num_1, num_2) m.compute() d = Division(num_1, num_2) d.compute() |
But if there are hundreds of Sub classes, we need to think of another mechanism. That’s where
.__subclasses__() becomes very useful. We can use that method to Iterate and Initialize all Sub classes for that given Super Class. You can do it like this,
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if __name__ == '__main__': num_1 = 20 num_2 = 10 for Operation in ArithmeticOperation.__subclasses__(): factor = Operation(num_1, num_2) factor.compute() pass |
Hope this post helped someone who’s looking for a way to Iterate and Initialize all Sub classes for a given Super Class using python. 🙂