Business
Jobs
  • About Us
  • Solutions
    • Job Postings
      Post your job and receive qualified candidates in 48h.
    • Candidate Assessments
      500+ technical and psychological tests, plus anti-fraud.
    • Headhunting
      Tailor-made executive search from start to finish.
    • Payroll + EOR
      Payroll dispersal and EOR across 15+ LATAM countries.
  • Pricing
  • Jobs

0

630
Views
AttributeError: cannot assign module before Module.__init__() call

I am getting the following error.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "main.py", line 63, in <module>
    question_classifier = QuestionClassifier(corpus.dictionary, embeddings_index, corpus.max_sent_length, args)
  File "/net/if5/wua4nw/wasi/academic/research_with_prof_chang/projects/question_answering/duplicate_question_detection/source/question_classifier.py", line 26, in __init__
    self.embedding = EmbeddingLayer(len(dictionary), args.emsize, args.dropout)
  File "/if5/wua4nw/anaconda3/lib/python3.5/site-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 255, in __setattr__
    "cannot assign module before Module.__init__() call")
AttributeError: cannot assign module before Module.__init__() call

I have a class as follows.

class QuestionClassifier(nn.Module):

     def __init__(self, dictionary, embeddings_index, max_seq_length, args):
         self.embedding = EmbeddingLayer(len(dictionary), args.emsize, args.dropout)
         self.encoder = EncoderRNN(args.emsize, args.nhid, args.model, args.bidirection, args.nlayers, args.dropout)
         self.drop = nn.Dropout(args.dropout)

So, when I run the following line:

question_classifier = QuestionClassifier(corpus.dictionary, embeddings_index, corpus.max_sent_length, args)

I get the above mentioned error. Here, EmbeddingLayer and EncoderRNN is a class written by me which inherits nn.module like the QuestionClassifier class.

What I am doing wrong here?

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo
3 answers
Answer question

0

Looking at the pytorch source code for Module, we see in the docstring an example of deriving from Module includes:

 class Model(nn.Module):
        def __init__(self):
            super(Model, self).__init__()
            self.conv1 = nn.Conv2d(1, 20, 5)
            self.conv2 = nn.Conv2d(20, 20, 5)

So you probably want to call Module's init the same way in your derived class:

super(QuestionClassifier, self).__init__()
over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report

0

Pytorch keeps track of the submodules(conv1, conv2) you will write in your custom Module. Under the hood, the graph corresponding to your Model is automatically built.

The nested Modules will be added to an OrderedDict _modules (initialized in nn.Module.__init__) See source(L69)

If nn.Module.__init__ is not called (self._modules would equal to None), when trying to add a Module, it will raise an error (no key can be added to None). See source(L540-544)

Inspired from the doc:

 class CustomModule(nn.Module):
        def __init__(self):
            super(CustomModule, self).__init__() # Initialize self._modules as OrderedDict
            self.conv1 = nn.Conv2d(1, 20, 5)     # Add key conv1 to self._modules
            self.conv2 = nn.Conv2d(20, 20, 5)    # Add key conv2 to self._modules 
over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report

0

This usually happens when super class's init has not been called. In this case one should start their Neural network class with super.__init__() call. The code would look like this:

class QuestionClassifier(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, dictionary, embeddings_index, max_seq_length, args):
       super().__init__()

This super's init call should be within this class's init code.

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report
Answer question
Find remote jobs

Discover the new way to find a job!

Top jobs
Top job categories
Business
Post vacancy Pricing Sales
Legal
Terms and conditions Privacy policy
© 2026 PeakU Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Andres GPT
Show me some job opportunities
There's an error!