Extend python class in one file so it can be imported and used by class in another file

Question

I have the following modules in python which I downloaded using pip.

mainmodule
    |
    |--utils
    |    |
    |    |--search_obj.py
    |
    |--search.py

The search looks like this,

import requests
from unidecode import unidecode

from .utils.search_obj import SearchObj


def search_text(text):
..............
..............

and search_obj.py looks like this,

class SearchObj(object):
    def __init__(self, name, id, tag):
        self.name = name
        self.id = id
        self.tag = tag

    def some functions():
...........
...........

So to execute it I do this,

mainmodule.search.search_text('testword')

It just returns me a SearchObj.

I want to print the name, id and tag.

If I go into the module and create a new function like this,

class SearchObj(object):
    def __init__(self, name, id, tag):
        self.name = name
        self.id = id
        self.tag = tag

    def print_stuff():
        return self.id, self.name, self.tag

Then try,

mainmodule.search.search_text('testword').print_stuff()

I can see the name, id and tag.

I don't want to go in and modify the function this way.

Is there a way I can import the module and just add this extra function so that the search file can access this new function?

I tried this,

class finder (SearchObj):
    def __init__(self):
        super(SearchObj, self)
    def print_stuff(self):
        return self.tag, self.name, self.id

But I keep getting an error, when I run this.

finder.search.search_text('testword').print_stuff()

This is the error,

AttributeError: type object 'finder' has no attribute 'search'

Answer 1

Your post says that this: mainmodule.search.search_text('testword').print_stuff() returns the id, name and tag so you can see it, so it follows that:

s = mainmodule.search.search_text('testword')

will return an instance of SearchObj.

Now you can do: print(s.id) to see the id, or modify that instance using: s.name = 'new name' etc.