Python built-in Method - issubclass()
The issubclass()
method in Python is a built-in function that allows you to check whether a class is a subclass of another class. The method returns a boolean value - True
if the first class is a subclass of the second class, and False
otherwise.
The syntax for issubclass()
is as follows:
issubclass(class, classinfo)
Here, class
is the class to be checked, and classinfo
is either a class object or a tuple of class objects. If class
is a subclass of any of the classes specified in classinfo
, the method returns True
.
For example:
class MyClass: pass class MySubclass(MyClass): pass print(issubclass(MySubclass, MyClass)) # True print(issubclass(MyClass, MySubclass)) # False
In the example above, we define a class MyClass
and a subclass MySubclass
. We then use the issubclass()
function to check if MySubclass
is a subclass of MyClass
, and if MyClass
is a subclass of MySubclass
.
The issubclass()
function is useful when you need to check the inheritance relationship between two classes at runtime. It can be used, for example, to implement a generic function that works with objects of different classes that share a common base class.
Note that issubclass()
returns True
for a class that is a subclass of the second class, as well as for a class that is the same as the second class. Also note that issubclass()
only works with classes, and not with instances or built-in types like integers or strings.