Introduction
Understand how Python uses abstract base classes to create clear class hierarchies and enforce method implementation. Learn about duck typing for interchangeable objects, operator overloading to customize behavior, and the role of metaclasses in advanced OOP. This lesson prepares you to build robust, extensible Python applications using these foundational OOP techniques.
We'll cover the following...
Overview
We often need to distinguish between concrete classes with a complete set of attributes and methods, and an abstract class that is missing some details. This parallels the philosophical idea of abstraction as a way to summarize complexities. We might say that a sailboat and an airplane have a common, abstract relationship of being vehicles, but the details of how they move are distinct.
Possible approaches for similar items
In Python, we have two approaches to defining similar things:
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Duck typing: When two class definitions have the same attributes and methods, then instances of the two classes have the ...