When overriding methods we sometimes want to still access the behavior of the parent method. In order to do that we need a way to call the method of the parent class. Python gives us a way to do that using super().

super() gives us a proxy object. With this proxy object, we can invoke the method of an object’s parent class (also called its superclass). We call the required function as a method on super():

class Animal:
  def __init__(self, name, sound="Grrrr"):
    self.name = name
    self.sound = sound

  def make_noise(self):
    print("{} says, {}".format(self.name, self.sound))

class Cat(Animal):
  def __init__(self, name):
    super().__init__(name, "Meow!") 

pet_cat = Cat("Rachel")
pet_cat.make_noise() # Rachel says, Meow!

In the above example, we have the class Animal and the subclass Cat. Animal has 2 attributes, name and sound and one method, .make_noise(). The .make_noise() method outputs the name and sound of an instance.

The Cat subclass has an .__init__() method which means the .__init__() method of its superclass, Animal will not be called when creating an instance of Cat. The .__init__() method from the subclass is overriding the one from the superclass.

To still invoke the .__init__() method of Animal, super().__init__(name, "Meow!") is called inside the subclass .__init__() method. This additional logic allows us to add the "Meow" sound from within the Cat class, but still use the .__init__() method of the Animal class.

super() is used in subclasses to invoke a needed behavior from the superclass alongside the behavior of a subclass method.