How do I get list of methods in a Python class?

Question:

Answers:

An example (listing the methods of the optparse.OptionParser class):

>>> from optparse import OptionParser
>>> import inspect
#python2
>>> inspect.getmembers(OptionParser, predicate=inspect.ismethod)
[([('__init__', <unbound method OptionParser.__init__>),
...
 ('add_option', <unbound method OptionParser.add_option>),
 ('add_option_group', <unbound method OptionParser.add_option_group>),
 ('add_options', <unbound method OptionParser.add_options>),
 ('check_values', <unbound method OptionParser.check_values>),
 ('destroy', <unbound method OptionParser.destroy>),
 ('disable_interspersed_args',
  <unbound method OptionParser.disable_interspersed_args>),
 ('enable_interspersed_args',
  <unbound method OptionParser.enable_interspersed_args>),
 ('error', <unbound method OptionParser.error>),
 ('exit', <unbound method OptionParser.exit>),
 ('expand_prog_name', <unbound method OptionParser.expand_prog_name>),
 ...
 ]
# python3
>>> inspect.getmembers(OptionParser, predicate=inspect.isfunction)
...

Notice that getmembers returns a list of 2-tuples. The first item is the name of the member, the second item is the value.

You can also pass an instance to getmembers:

>>> parser = OptionParser()
>>> inspect.getmembers(parser, predicate=inspect.ismethod)
...
Answered By: codeape

Try the property __dict__.

Answered By: Eugene Bulkin

There is the dir(theobject) method to list all the fields and methods of your object (as a tuple) and the inspect module (as codeape write) to list the fields and methods with their doc (in “””).

Because everything (even fields) might be called in Python, I’m not sure there is a built-in function to list only methods. You might want to try if the object you get through dir is callable or not.

Answered By: Vincent Demeester

Note that you need to consider whether you want methods from base classes which are inherited (but not overridden) included in the result. The dir() and inspect.getmembers() operations do include base class methods, but use of the __dict__ attribute does not.

Answered By: satyagraha
def find_defining_class(obj, meth_name):
    for ty in type(obj).mro():
        if meth_name in ty.__dict__:
            return ty

So

print find_defining_class(car, 'speedometer') 

Think Python page 210

Answered By: lewis scott diamond

I know this is an old post, but just wrote this function and will leave it here is case someone stumbles looking for an answer:

def classMethods(the_class,class_only=False,instance_only=False,exclude_internal=True):

    def acceptMethod(tup):
        #internal function that analyzes the tuples returned by getmembers tup[1] is the 
        #actual member object
        is_method = inspect.ismethod(tup[1])
        if is_method:
            bound_to = tup[1].im_self
            internal = tup[1].im_func.func_name[:2] == '__' and tup[1].im_func.func_name[-2:] == '__'
            if internal and exclude_internal:
                include = False
            else:
                include = (bound_to == the_class and not instance_only) or (bound_to == None and not class_only)
        else:
            include = False
        return include
    #uses filter to return results according to internal function and arguments
    return filter(acceptMethod,inspect.getmembers(the_class))
Answered By: user3569372

you can also import the FunctionType from types and test it with the class.__dict__:

from types import FunctionType

class Foo:
    def bar(self): pass
    def baz(self): pass

def methods(cls):
    return [x for x, y in cls.__dict__.items() if type(y) == FunctionType]

methods(Foo)  # ['bar', 'baz']
Answered By: Seaux

Python 3.x answer without external libraries

method_list = [func for func in dir(Foo) if callable(getattr(Foo, func))]

dunder-excluded result:

method_list = [func for func in dir(Foo) if callable(getattr(Foo, func)) and not func.startswith("__")]
Answered By: Derorrist

If your method is a "regular" method and not a staticmethod, classmethod etc.
There is a little hack I came up with –

for k, v in your_class.__dict__.items():
    if "function" in str(v):
        print(k)

This can be extended to other type of methods by changing "function" in the if condition correspondingly.
Tested in Python 2.7 and Python 3.5.

Answered By: markroxor

Say you want to know all methods associated with list class
Just Type The following

 print (dir(list))

Above will give you all methods of list class

Answered By: Naresh Joshi

This also works:

In mymodule.py:

def foo(x):
   return 'foo'
def bar():
   return 'bar'

In another file:

import inspect
import mymodule
method_list = [ func[0] for func in inspect.getmembers(mymodule, predicate=inspect.isroutine) if callable(getattr(mymodule, func[0])) ]

Output:

[‘foo’, ‘bar’]

From the Python docs:

inspect.isroutine(object)

Return true if the object is a user-defined or built-in function or method.

Answered By: Josh Dando
class CPerson:
    def __init__(self, age):
        self._age = age

    def run(self):
        pass

    @property
    def age(self): return self._age

    @staticmethod
    def my_static_method(): print("Life is short, you need Python")

    @classmethod
    def say(cls, msg): return msg


test_class = CPerson
# print(dir(test_class))  # list all the fields and methods of your object
print([(name, t) for name, t in test_class.__dict__.items() if type(t).__name__ == 'function' and not name.startswith('__')])
print([(name, t) for name, t in test_class.__dict__.items() if type(t).__name__ != 'function' and not name.startswith('__')])

output

[('run', <function CPerson.run at 0x0000000002AD3268>)]
[('age', <property object at 0x0000000002368688>), ('my_static_method', <staticmethod object at 0x0000000002ACBD68>), ('say', <classmethod object at 0x0000000002ACF0B8>)]
Answered By: Carson

If you want to list only methods of a python class

import numpy as np
print(np.random.__all__)
Answered By: Rakesh Chaudhari
methods = [(func, getattr(o, func)) for func in dir(o) if callable(getattr(o, func))]

gives an identical list as

methods = inspect.getmembers(o, predicate=inspect.ismethod)

does.

Answered By: Patrick B.

This is just an observation. “encode” seems to be a method for string objects

str_1 = 'a'
str_1.encode('utf-8')
>>> b'a'

However, if str1 is inspected for methods, an empty list is returned

inspect.getmember(str_1, predicate=inspect.ismethod)
>>> []

So, maybe I am wrong, but the issue seems to be not simple.

There’s this approach:

[getattr(obj, m) for m in dir(obj) if not m.startswith('__')]

When dealing with a class instance, perhaps it’d be better to return a list with the method references instead of just names¹. If that’s your goal, as well as

  1. Using no import
  2. Excluding private methods (e.g. __init__) from the list

It may be of use. You might also want to assure it’s callable(getattr(obj, m)), since dir returns all attributes within obj, not just methods.

In a nutshell, for a class like

class Ghost:
    def boo(self, who):
        return f'Who you gonna call? {who}'

We could check instance retrieval with

>>> g = Ghost()
>>> methods = [getattr(g, m) for m in dir(g) if not m.startswith('__')]
>>> print(methods)
[<bound method Ghost.boo of <__main__.Ghost object at ...>>]

So you can call it right away:

>>> for method in methods:
...     print(method('GHOSTBUSTERS'))
...
Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS

¹ An use case:

I used this for unit testing. Had a class where all methods performed variations of the same process – which led to lengthy tests, each only a tweak away from the others. DRY was a far away dream.

Thought I should have a single test for all methods, so I made the above iteration.

Although I realized I should instead refactor the code itself to be DRY-compliant anyway… this may still serve a random nitpicky soul in the future.

Answered By: Julio Cezar Silva

I just keep this there, because top rated answers are not clear.

This is simple test with not usual class based on Enum.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys, inspect
from enum import Enum

class my_enum(Enum):
    """Enum base class my_enum"""
    M_ONE = -1
    ZERO = 0
    ONE = 1
    TWO = 2
    THREE = 3

    def is_natural(self):
            return (self.value > 0)
    def is_negative(self):
            return (self.value < 0)

def is_clean_name(name):
    return not name.startswith('_') and not name.endswith('_')
def clean_names(lst):
    return [ n for n in lst if is_clean_name(n) ]
def get_items(cls,lst):
    try:
            res = [ getattr(cls,n) for n in lst ]
    except Exception as e:
            res = (Exception, type(e), e)
            pass
    return res


print( sys.version )

dir_res = clean_names( dir(my_enum) )
inspect_res = clean_names( [ x[0] for x in inspect.getmembers(my_enum) ] )
dict_res = clean_names( my_enum.__dict__.keys() )

print( '## names ##' )
print( dir_res )
print( inspect_res )
print( dict_res )

print( '## items ##' )
print( get_items(my_enum,dir_res) )
print( get_items(my_enum,inspect_res) )
print( get_items(my_enum,dict_res) )

And this is output results.

3.7.7 (default, Mar 10 2020, 13:18:53) 
[GCC 9.2.1 20200306]
## names ##
['M_ONE', 'ONE', 'THREE', 'TWO', 'ZERO']
['M_ONE', 'ONE', 'THREE', 'TWO', 'ZERO', 'name', 'value']
['is_natural', 'is_negative', 'M_ONE', 'ZERO', 'ONE', 'TWO', 'THREE']
## items ##
[<my_enum.M_ONE: -1>, <my_enum.ONE: 1>, <my_enum.THREE: 3>, <my_enum.TWO: 2>, <my_enum.ZERO: 0>]
(<class 'Exception'>, <class 'AttributeError'>, AttributeError('name'))
[<function my_enum.is_natural at 0xb78a1fa4>, <function my_enum.is_negative at 0xb78ae854>, <my_enum.M_ONE: -1>, <my_enum.ZERO: 0>, <my_enum.ONE: 1>, <my_enum.TWO: 2>, <my_enum.THREE: 3>]

So what we have:

  • dir provide not complete data
  • inspect.getmembers provide not complete data and provide internal keys that are not accessible with getattr()
  • __dict__.keys() provide complete and reliable result

Why are votes so erroneous? And where i’m wrong? And where wrong other people which answers have so low votes?

Answered By: imbearr

You can list all methods in a python class by using the following code

dir(className)

This will return a list of all the names of the methods in the class

Answered By: Ekene Oguikpu

To produce a list of methods put the name of the method in a list without the usual parenthesis. Remove the name and attach the parenthesis and that calls the method.

    def methodA():
        print("@ MethodA")

    def methodB():
        print("@ methodB")

    a = []
    a.append(methodA)
    a.append(methodB)
    for item in a:
        item()
Answered By: Charles Hartley

You can use a function which I have created.

def method_finder(classname):

    non_magic_class = []

    class_methods = dir(classname)

    for m in class_methods:

        if m.startswith('__'):

            continue

        else:

            non_magic_class.append(m)

    return non_magic_class




method_finder(list)

Output:

['append',
 'clear',
 'copy',
 'count',
 'extend',
 'index',
 'insert',
 'pop',
 'remove',
 'reverse',
 'sort']
Answered By: Sameer Ali VP

Try
print(help(ClassName))
It prints out methods of the class

Answered By: Parkofadown

None of the above worked for me.

I’ve encountered this problem while writing pytests.

The only work-around I found was to:

1- create another directory and place all my .py files there

2- create a separate directory for my pytests and then importing the classes I’m interested in

This allowed me to get up-to-dated methods within the class – you can change the method names and then use print(dir(class)) to confirm it.

Answered By: llincolnatal

use inspect.ismethod and dir and getattr

 import inspect
 class ClassWithMethods:
    
    def method1(self):
        print('method1')
    def method2(self):
        print('method2')

obj=ClassWithMethods()

method_names = [attr for attr in dir(obj) if inspect.ismethod(getattr(obj,attr))

print(method_names)

output:

[[('method1', <bound method ClassWithMethods.method1 of <__main__.ClassWithMethods object at 0x00000266779AF388>>), ('method2', <bound method ClassWithMethods.method2 of <__main__.ClassWithMethods object at 0x00000266779AF388>>)]]
Answered By: Golden Lion

Just like this

pprint.pprint([x for x in dir(list) if not x.startswith("_")])
Answered By: SEAccount
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