Question

class Meta(dict):
    def __init__(self, indexed, method, *args, **kwargs):
        super(Meta, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        print self

How come this prints my kwargs?

m = Meta(indexed='hello', method='distance', a='3', b='4')

When I run this, it prints out a dictionary with my kwargs, when I’m expecting an empty dictionary…

Answer 1

That’s because the dict class initializes its contents from the keyword arguments passed to its constructor:

>>> dict(indexed='hello', method='distance', a='3', b='4')
{'a': '3', 'indexed': 'hello', 'b': '4', 'method': 'distance'}

Since your class calls dict‘s constructor with the keyword arguments passed to its own constructor, the dictionary is indeed initialized and the same behavior is observed.