How do I get the name from a named tuple in python?

Question

I create a named tuple like this:

from collections import namedtuple
spam = namedtuple('eggs', 'x, y, z')
ham = spam(1,2,3)

Then I can access elements of ham with e.g.

>>> ham.x
1
>>> ham.z
3

In the interpreter,

>>> ham
eggs(x=1, y=2, z=3)

But what if I just want to get 'eggs'? The only way I've been able to think of is

>>> ham.__repr__.split('(')[0]
'eggs'

but this seems a bit messy. Is there a cleaner way of doing it?

Why do named tuples have this 'eggs' aspect to them if it isn't possible to access it without resorting to a private method?

Answer 1

On the topic of namedtuple attributes:

 >>> ham._fields
    ('x', 'y', 'z')

is sometimes useful to know

Answer 2

Based on python's doc, namedtuple gives you a new tuple subclass named 'eggs'

So essentially you need the class name

and type(ham).__name__ will give you the class name

Answer 3

>>> ham.__class__.__name__
'eggs'

Answer 4

You can get the __name__ attribute of the class:

>>> type(ham).__name__
'eggs'

(Here using the type() builtin to get the class).