CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Joan Venge
Joan Venge

Reputation: 331052

Is there a function in Python to list the attributes and methods of a particular object?

Is there a function in Python to list the attributes and methods of a particular object?

Something like:

ShowAttributes ( myObject )

   -> .count
   -> .size

ShowMethods ( myObject )

   -> len
   -> parse

Upvotes: 54

Views: 75380

Answers (5)

Evhz
Evhz

Reputation: 9246

It is surprising to me that no one mentioned the python object function:
keys()

Upvotes: -1

Andrew Hare
Andrew Hare

Reputation: 351516

You want to look at the dir() function:

>>> li = []
>>> dir(li)      
['append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert',
'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']

li is a list, so dir(li) returns a list of all the methods of a list. Note that the returned list contains the names of the methods as strings, not the methods themselves.

Edit in response to comment:

No this will show all inherited methods as well. Consider this example:

test.py:

class Foo:
    def foo(): pass

class Bar(Foo):
    def bar(): pass

Python interpreter:

>>> from test import Foo, Bar
>>> dir(Foo)
['__doc__', '__module__', 'foo']
>>> dir(Bar)
['__doc__', '__module__', 'bar', 'foo']

You should note that Python's documentation states:

Note: Because dir() is supplied primarily as a convenience for use at an interactive prompt, it tries to supply an interesting set of names more than it tries to supply a rigorously or consistently defined set of names, and its detailed behavior may change across releases. For example, metaclass attributes are not in the result list when the argument is a class.

Therefore it's not safe to use in your code. Use vars() instead. Vars() doesn't include information about the superclasses, you'd have to collect them yourself.

If you're using dir() to find information in an interactive interpreter, consider the use of help().

Upvotes: 71

Autoplectic
Autoplectic

Reputation: 7666

and for a more human-readable way, you can use see:

In [1]: from see import see
In [2]: x = "hello world!"
In [3]: see(x)
Out[3]: 
  []   in   +   *   %   <   <=   ==   !=   >   >=   hash()   help()   len()
  repr()   str()   .capitalize()   .center()   .count()   .decode()
  .encode()   .endswith()   .expandtabs()   .find()   .format()   .index()
  .isalnum()   .isalpha()   .isdigit()   .islower()   .isspace()   .istitle()
  .isupper()   .join()   .ljust()   .lower()   .lstrip()   .partition()
  .replace()   .rfind()   .rindex()   .rjust()   .rpartition()   .rsplit()
  .rstrip()   .split()   .splitlines()   .startswith()   .strip()
  .swapcase()   .title()   .translate()   .upper()   .zfill()

Upvotes: 12

RossFabricant
RossFabricant

Reputation: 12492

Another way to do this is with the nifty IPython environment. It lets you tab complete to find all the methods and fields of an object.

Upvotes: 2

Anonymous
Anonymous

Reputation: 3051

Don't dir() and vars() suit you?

Upvotes: 12

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