Multiple Inheritance

Intermediate Object-Oriented Programming in Python

Jake Roach

Data Engineer

Multiple inheritance

Allows for a class to inherit the functionality of more than a single class

Intern can inherit from both Employee and Student
Maintains an "is-a" relationship

An Intern class inheriting from an Employee and Student class.

class Employee:
  def __init__(self, department):
    self.department = department

  def begin_job(self):
    print(f"Welcome to {self.department}!")

class Student:
  def __init__(self, school):
    self.school = school
    self.courses = []

  def add_course(self, course_name):
    self.courses.append(course_name)

Multiple inheritance

class Intern(Employee, Student):
    def __init__(self, department, school, duration):
        # Make a call to BOTH constructors
        Employee.__init__(self, department)
        Student.__init__(self, school)
        self.duration = duration

    def onboard(self, mentor):
        # Implementation of a new method
        ...

Creating an Intern object

stephen = Intern("Software Development", "Echo University", 10)
stephen.begin_job()  # Method from Employee

Welcome to Software Development!

stephen.add_course("Intermediate OOP in Python")  # Method from Intern
print(stephen.courses)

["Intermediate OOP in Python"]

Multilevel inheritance

Inherit a class which inherits from another class, becoming a grandchild

Maintain an "is-a" relationship

Graphic illustrating multilevel inheritance.

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

  def introduce(self):
      print(f"Hello, my name is {self.name}")

class Employee(Person):
  def __init__(self, name, title):
    Person.__init__(self, name)
    self.title = title

  def change_position(self, new_title):
    print(f"Starting new role as {new_title}")
    self.title = new_title

Multilevel inheritance

class Manager(Employee):
  def __init__(self, name, title, number_reports):
    Employee.__init__(self, name, title)
    self.number_reports = number_reports

mike = Manager("Mike", "Engineering Manager", 14)
mike.introduce()
mike.change_position("Director of Engineering")
print(mike.number_reports)

Hello, my name is Mike
Starting new role as Director of Engineering
14

Method resolution order (MRO)

The order in which Python determines which method is used when parent and children implement a method with the same name

Follow these rules to determine MRO:

Children will be searched first
Parent classes will be searched left-to-right as they were defined in class statement

.mro() method and __mro__

Child class inheriting multiple parent classes.

¹ Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python, Sweigart (pg. 311)

Method resolution order (MRO)

class Intern(Employee, Student):  # Intern inherits the Employee and the Student classes
  ...

# Find the MRO for Intern
print(Intern.mro())

[<class '__main__.Intern'>, <class '__main__.Employee'>, <class '__main__.Student'>, <class 'object'>]

# Find the MRO using __mro__
print(Intern.__mro__)

(<class '__main__.Intern'>, <class '__main__.Employee'>, <class '__main__.Student'>, <class 'object'>)

Let's practice!

Intermediate Object-Oriented Programming in Python