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Can I still use abstract method if one of the method parameters is different?

December 17, 2021

In the code below, I have 3 subclasses, Model1, Model2, Model3. For the ‘exec’ method, if Model1 and Model2 have only ‘text’ as parameter, but Model3 has one additional parameter ‘type’. In this case, can I still define ‘exec’ as the abstract method, or I shouldn’t define it as an abstract method?

class Model(ABC):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        pass

    @abstractmethod
    def load(self):
        pass

    @abstractmethod
    def exec(self, text):
        pass

>Solution :

It depends on the logic.

If the type parameter is related to all Model objects, so you can create an abstractmethod of it for all of them:

class Model(ABC):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        pass

    @abstractmethod
    def load(self):
        pass

    @abstractmethod
    def exec(self, text, type=None):
        pass

But, IMO if type param is not related to all Model objects, you cannot write an abstractmethod for it.