What is the role of the __new__ method in the object creation process in Python?

The __new__ method in Python is responsible for creating a new instance of a class. It is called first when an object is created and is responsible for allocating memory for the object. Unlike __init__, which initializes an already created object, __new__ returns the object itself.

Example of usage:

class MyClass:
    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
        print("Creating object")
        instance = super().__new__(cls)
        return instance

    def __init__(self, value):
        print("Initializing object")
        self.value = value

obj = MyClass(10)

Here, __new__ is called first to create the object, then __init__ initializes it. The __new__ method is useful when you need to control the object creation process, for example, when implementing the Singleton pattern or inheriting from immutable types.