How Is the Super Function Used? (JNNC Technologies)

The super function is somewhat versatile, and can be used in a couple of ways.

Use Case 1: Super can be called upon in a single inheritance, in order to refer to the parent class or multiple classes without explicitly naming them. It’s somewhat of a shortcut, but more importantly, it helps keep your code maintainable for the foreseeable future.

Use Case 2: Super can be called upon in a dynamic execution environment for multiple or collaborative inheritance. This use is considered exclusive to Python, because it’s not possible with languages that only support single inheritance or are statically compiled.

When the super function was introduced it sparked a bit of controversy. Many developers found the documentation unclear, and the function itself to be tricky to implement. It even garnered a reputation for being harmful. But it’s important to remember that Python has evolved considerably since 2.2 and many of these concerns no longer apply.

The great thing about super is that it can be used to enhance any module method. Plus, there’s no need to know the details about the base class that’s being used as an extender. The super function handles all of it for you.

So, for all intents and purposes, super is a shortcut to access a base class without having to know its type or name.

In Python 3 and above, the syntax for super is:

super().methoName(args)

Whereas the normal way to call super (in older builds of Python) is:

super(subClass, instance).method(args)