Python - TypeError: (function) takes exactly 2 arguments (3 given) - but I only gave 2!

Question

I'm parsing a list of patient visits (csv file). To deal with this, I have a custom set of classes:

class Patient:
    def __init__(self,Rx,ID):
    ....

class PtController:
    def __init__(self,openCSVFile):
        self.dict=DictReader(openCSVFile)
        self.currentPt = ''
        ....

    def initNewPt(self,row):
        Rx = row['Prescription']
        PatientID = row['PatientID']
        self.currentPt = Patient(Rx,PatientID)
        ...

So, I'm using the csv.DictReader to process the file; built into the PtController class. It iterates through, but to set values for the first patient does the following:

firstRow = self.dict.next()
self.initNewPt(self,firstRow)
    ...

The error:

TypeError: initNewPt() takes exactly 2 arguments (3 given)

If I print(firstRow) before calling initNewPt, it prints the row in dictionary form as expected.

Using python2.7, and this is my first time working with objects. Thoughts?

Answer 1

You do not need to pass self directly as in self.initNewPt(self,firstRow) , since it is automatically passed implicitly by Python.

Answer 2

When you call self.initNewPt() you should not pass self as a parameter. This is an implied parameter that's automatically present.

Answer 3

You need to call the initNewPt without the self argument within a class method:

self.initNewPt(firstRow)