Question

Is there a difference between

class A:
    ...

and

class A():
    ...

I just realized that a couple of my classes are defined as the former and they work just fine. Do the empty parenthesis make any difference?

Answer 1

The latter is a syntax error on older versions of Python. In Python 2.x you should derive from object whenever possible though, since several useful features are only available with new-style classes (deriving from object is optional in Python 3.x, since new-style classes are the default there).