Understanding metaclass and inheritance in Python

1) What is use of metaclass and when to use it?

Metaclasses are to classes as classes are to objects. They are classes for classes (hence the expression "meta").

Metaclasses are typically for when you want to work outside of the normal constraints of OOP.

2) What is difference/similarity between metaclass and inheritance?

A metaclass is not part of an object's class hierarchy whereas base classes are. So when an object does obj.some_method() it will not search the metaclass for this method however the metaclass may have created it during the class' or object's creation.

In this example below, the metaclass MetaCar gives objects a defect attribute based on a random number. The defect attribute is not defined in any of the objects' base classes or the class itself. This, however, could have been achieved using classes only.

However (unlike classes), this metaclass also re-routes object creation; in the some_cars list, all the Toyotas are created using the Car class. The metaclass detects that Car.__init__ contains a make argument that matches a pre-existing class by that name and so returns a object of that class instead.

Additionally, you'll also note that in the some_cars list, Car.__init__ is called with make="GM". A GM class has not been defined at this point in the program's evaluation. The metaclass detects that a class doesn't exist by that name in the make argument, so it creates one and updates the global namespace (so it doesn't need to use the return mechanism). It then creates the object using the newly defined class and returns it.

import random

class CarBase(object):
    pass

class MetaCar(type):
    car_brands = {}
    def __init__(cls, cls_name, cls_bases, cls_dict):
        super(MetaCar, cls).__init__(cls_name, cls_bases, cls_dict)
        if(not CarBase in cls_bases):

            MetaCar.car_brands[cls_name] = cls

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        make = kwargs.get("make", "")
        if(MetaCar.car_brands.has_key(make) and not (self is MetaCar.car_brands[make])):
            obj = MetaCar.car_brands[make].__call__(*args, **kwargs)
            if(make == "Toyota"):
                if(random.randint(0, 100) < 2):
                    obj.defect = "sticky accelerator pedal"
            elif(make == "GM"):

                if(random.randint(0, 100) < 20):
                    obj.defect = "shithouse"
            elif(make == "Great Wall"):
                if(random.randint(0, 100) < 101):
                    obj.defect = "cancer"
        else:
            obj = None
            if(not MetaCar.car_brands.has_key(self.__name__)):
                new_class = MetaCar(make, (GenericCar,), {})
                globals()[make] = new_class

                obj = new_class(*args, **kwargs)
            else:
                obj = super(MetaCar, self).__call__(*args, **kwargs)
        return obj

class Car(CarBase):
    __metaclass__ = MetaCar

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        for name, value in kwargs.items():

            setattr(self, name, value)

    def __repr__(self):
        return "<%s>" % self.description

    @property
    def description(self):
        return "%s %s %s %s" % (self.color, self.year, self.make, self.model)

class GenericCar(Car):

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        kwargs["make"] = self.__class__.__name__
        super(GenericCar, self).__init__(**kwargs)

class Toyota(GenericCar):
    pass

colours = \
[
    "blue",

    "green",
    "red",
    "yellow",
    "orange",
    "purple",
    "silver",
    "black",
    "white"
]


def rand_colour():
    return colours[random.randint(0, len(colours) - 1)]

some_cars = \
[
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Prius", year=2005, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Camry", year=2007, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Camry Hybrid", year=2013, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Land Cruiser", year=2009, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="FJ Cruiser", year=2012, color=rand_colour()),

    Car(make="Toyota", model="Corolla", year=2010, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Hiace", year=2006, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Townace", year=2003, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Aurion", year=2008, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="Supra", year=2004, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="Toyota", model="86", year=2013, color=rand_colour()),
    Car(make="GM", model="Camaro", year=2008, color=rand_colour())
]

dodgy_vehicles = filter(lambda x: hasattr(x, "defect"), some_cars)

print dodgy_vehicles

3) Where should one use metaclass or inheritance?

As mentioned in this answer and in the comments, almost always use inheritance when doing OOP. Metaclasses are for working outside those constraints (refer to example) and is almost always not necessary however some very advanced and extremely dynamic program flow can be achieved with them. This is both their strength and their danger.