python multiple inheritance from different paths with same method name

Question

With the following code sample, can super be used, or C has to call A.foo and B.foo explicitly?

class A(object):

    def foo(self):

        print 'A.foo()'

class B(object):

    def foo(self):

        print 'B.foo()'

class C(A, B):

    def foo(self):

        print 'C.foo()'

        A.foo(self)

        B.foo(self)

Answer 1

super is indeed intended for this situation, but it only works if you use it consistently. If the base classes don't also all use super it won't work, and unless the method is in object you have to use something like a common base class to terminate the chain of super calls.

class FooBase(object):

    def foo(self): pass

class A(FooBase):

    def foo(self):

        super(A, self).foo()

        print 'A.foo()'

class B(FooBase):

    def foo(self):

        super(B, self).foo()

        print 'B.foo()'

class C(A, B):

    def foo(self):

        super(C, self).foo()

        print 'C.foo()'

Reason for keeping the same base:

Without FooBase that implements foo but doesn't call super() the last class that does call super() will get an attribute error as there is no base method to call.

If there were separate base classes class A(AFooBase): and class B(BFooBase): the super() call in A would call the method in AFooBase and the method in B would never be called. When the base is common to all of the classes it goes to the end of the method resolution order and you can be certain that no matter how the classes are defined the base class method will be the last one called.