Python: How to retrieve class information from a 'frame' object?

This is a bit shorter, but does about the same. Returns None if class name not available.

def get_class_name():
    f = sys._getframe(1)

    try:
        class_name = f.f_locals['self'].__class__.__name__
    except KeyError:
        class_name = None

    return class_name

I just came across this post as I was faced with the same problem. I did not consider the ‘self’ method an acceptable solution, however, for all the reasons already listed.

The following code demonstrates a different approach: given a frame object it searches the globals for an object with matching member name and code block. The search is hardly exhaustive so it is possible that not all classes will be uncovered, but what classes are found should be the ones we are looking for because we verify matching codes.

Object of the code is to prepend a function name with its class name, if found:

def get_name( frame ):
  code = frame.f_code
  name = code.co_name
  for objname, obj in frame.f_globals.iteritems():
    try:
      assert obj.__dict__[name].func_code is code
    except Exception:
      pass
    else: # obj is the class that defines our method
      name = '%s.%s' % ( objname, name )
      break
  return name

Note the use of __dict__ instead of getattr to prevent catching of derived classes.

Note further that a global search can be avoided if self = frame.f_locals['self']; obj = self.__class__ gives a match, or any obj in self.__class__.__bases__ or deeper, so there is certainly room for optimization / hybridization.

If a method is a class method, the class will be the first argument. This prints out the type of the first arg if present for each calling stack frame:

    def some_method(self):
        for f in inspect.getouterframes(inspect.currentframe() ):
            args, _,_, local_dict = inspect.getargvalues(f[0])
            if args: 
                first_arg = args[0]
                first_value = local_dict[first_arg]
                print(type(first_value).__name__) 

Hello and forgive the necro; but none of these worked for me so inspired by some of the snippets here I cooked up an alternative. This is how I managed to do it for class methods in python 3.7:

import inspect;

def QLNAME(frame):

    code = frame.f_code;
    name = code.co_name;
    qual = None;

    for cls in ( obj for obj in frame.f_globals.values()  #
                     if  inspect.isclass(obj)             ):

        if hasattr(cls, name):

            member = getattr(cls, name);
            if not inspect.isfunction(member): continue;

            if member.__code__ == code:
                qual = member.__qualname__;
                break;

    return qual;

The way it works is actually quite simple, we check

1. For classes within the frame’s global scope
2. If this class has a member sharing the name in question
3. Whether this member is a function
4. Finally, compare the codes of both functions

If Nº4 is true, then we know for a fact that cls is a class with some method member that has code identical to the one we get from the frame.

All well and good, but this is not perfect. It won’t work for a property-decorated method far as I’ve tested, and I’m not yet entirely sure how one would handle that corner case. But it is working for me on regular and static methods which is all I need at the moment, so fair enough.

Do note however that this is very slow, though I think that goes without saying. From my own benchmarks, it usually takes around two to almost three seconds per 100,000 calls. This is acceptable for my current use-case, but if you need to use this more than a handful of times in one go, you may want to work out some optimizations first. I’ll leave that in your capable hands (:

Hope someone else who search-engine stumbles here can find some of this useful.

Cheers.

The following answer gets the type by utilizing the GC:

Another necro, but this time with a definite answer that has the exactly wanted result.

The idea is to utilize the references that are saved within the GC to the function.
The bottom line: Using the functions defined below, the returned value is the calling class:

import inspect

def get_type_of_calling_func():
    frame = inspect.currentframe().f_back
    func = get_func_from_frame(frame)
    return get_class_from_func(func)

class Class:
    def f(self):
        return get_type_of_calling_func()

print(Class().f())
# <class '__main__.Class'>

The main functionality is given below in two utility functions (the division is for usability). These functions’ definitions are:

import gc
from types import FunctionType, MethodType, FrameType
from typing import Optional, Union, Iterator, Mapping


def get_func_from_frame(frame: FrameType) -> Optional[FunctionType]:
    # Nifty trick - get the function from the reference to its code object
    refs = gc.get_referrers(frame.f_code)

    for ref in refs:
        if isinstance(ref, FunctionType):
            return ref

    return None


def get_class_from_func(func: Union[FunctionType, classmethod, MethodType]) -> Optional[type]:
    cls_qual_name, func_name = func.__qualname__.rsplit('.', 1)
    assert func_name == func.__name__

    # If classmethod or method
    if not isinstance(func, FunctionType):
        self = getattr(func, '__self__', None)
        for possibility in (self, type(self)):
            if isinstance(possibility, type) and possibility.__qualname__ == cls_qual_name:
                return possibility

    # Recursively check GC references
    visited_ids = set()
    items_to_check = [func]

    # The function is referenced within the type's dict, or its descriptor
    while len(items_to_check) > 0:
        obj = items_to_check[0]
        items_to_check = items_to_check[1:]

        obj_id = id(obj)
        if obj_id in visited_ids:
            continue
        visited_ids.add(obj_id)

        refs = gc.get_referrers(obj)
        for ref in refs:
            if isinstance(ref, type) and ref.__qualname__ == cls_qual_name:
                return ref

            if (
                    hasattr(ref, '__get__') or
                    # Then this is a descriptor (e.g. `classmethod`). Check if this works with the descriptor
                    isinstance(ref, Mapping)
                    # Then this is possibly a `__dict__` of a type
            ):
                items_to_check.append(ref)

    return None