With a class that inherits from dict, why does str() not use dict.__str__
when dict is earlier in the MRO of the class?
Python 3.10.12 (main, Sep 11 2024, 15:47:36) [GCC 11.4.0] on linux
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>>> class A:
... def __str__(self):
... return "A"
...
>>> class B(dict, A):
... pass
...
>>> B.__mro__
(<class '__main__.B'>, <class 'dict'>, <class '__main__.A'>, <class 'object'>)
>>> str(B())
'A'
>>> str(dict())
'{}'
>>>
When calling str(B()), why is dict.__str__
not called in preference to A.__str__
?
Is it somehow related to dict having a slot_wrapper instead of a function?
>>> dict.__str__
<slot wrapper '__str__' of 'object' objects>
>>> A.__str__
<function A.__str__ at 0x75be4ea8a0e0>
>>> B.__str__
<function A.__str__ at 0x75be4ea8a0e0>
EDIT re: Sub-Interpreters
In a Python 3.12 sub-interpreter the behavior is different.
This is what started my investigation. A Django application running in Apache with mod_wsgi exposed the difference.
Inspecting dict.__str__
:
Python 3.10.12, main AND sub interpreters:
<slot wrapper '__str__' of 'object' objects>
Python 3.12.3, main interpreter:
<slot wrapper '__str__' of 'object' objects>
Python 3.12.3, sub interpreter:
<slot wrapper '__str__' of 'dict' objects>
This added dict.__str__
is what was making Django forms display errors as "{}"
or "[]"
, instead of ""
.
The fix was to add this line into the Apache site definition:
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
which, per modwsgi documentation:
>> ... forces the WSGI application to run in the main Python interpreter...
The config was already using the directives:
WSGIDaemonProcess
WSGIProcessGroup
WSGIScriptAlias
EDIT
This is a bug in Python 3.12.4 and earlier. See gh-117482
dict.__str__
is inherited from object
, not implemented by dict
. (The implementation is basically return repr(self)
- it's not dict
-specific.)
dict
might come before A
in B.__mro__
, but A
comes before object
, so A
's __str__
implementation is found before object
's implementation.