Error calling super __init__ in Python

Question

I am having trouble calling the super init method, I'm very new to python. Code:

class Employee:
    "Our common employee base class"

    empCount = 0

    def __init__(self, name, salary):
        self.name = name
        self.salary = salary
        Employee.empCount += 1

    def displayCount(self):
        print "Total number of employees: ", Employee.empCount

    def displayEmployee(self):
        print "Name: %s , Salary: $%d" % (self.name,self.salary)

    def __del__(self):
        print "Class destroyed"

Now I also have a class SuperIntern:

class SuperIntern(Employee):
    internCount = 0

    def __init__(self, name, salary):
        super(self.__class__, self).__init__(name, salary)
        SuperIntern.internCount +=1

    def displayNumInterns(self):
        print "We have %d interns" %SuperIntern.internCount


intern2 = SuperIntern("Harry", 22)

When I try to create an instance of this class I get the error: super(self. class , self). init (name, salary), TypeError: must be type, not classobj. I have tried using the class name SuperIntern directly instead of self. class and it still throws an error. Could someone point me in the right direction please? Thanks!

Answer 1

In Python 2, super can only be used with new-style classes. Employee must extend object :

class Employee(object):
    # ...

This makes Employee a new-style class (and SuperIntern as well, since it now extends a new-style class).