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

Question

Something like:

ShowAttributes ( myObject )

   -> .count
   -> .size

ShowMethods ( myObject )

   -> len
   -> parse

Asked By: Joan Venge

||

Source

Answer 1

Don’t dir() and vars() suit you?

Answered By: Anonymous

Answer 2

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().

Answered By: Andrew Hare

Answer 3

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.

Answered By: RossFabricant

Answer 4

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()

Answered By: Autoplectic

Answer 5

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

Answered By: Evhz

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

Question:

Answers: