What is the purpose of using the super method in object-oriented programming?

The super() method in object-oriented programming in Python is used to call methods of the parent class from a subclass. This allows extending or overriding functionality while maintaining access to the original implementation. For example, when overriding a subclass constructor, you can call super().__init__() to initialize the part defined in the base class without duplicating code:

class Animal:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

class Dog(Animal):
    def __init__(self, name, breed):
        super().__init__(name)
        self.breed = breed

Thus, super() helps maintain a clean class hierarchy and code reuse.