How can I get the class that defined a method in Python?
I'd want the following example to print "__main__.FooClass
":
class FooClass:
def foo_method(self):
print "foo"
class BarClass(FooClass):
pass
bar = BarClass()
print get_class_that_defined_method(bar.foo_method)
import inspect
def get_class_that_defined_method(meth):
for cls in inspect.getmro(meth.im_class):
if meth.__name__ in cls.__dict__:
return cls
return None
Thanks Sr2222 for pointing out I was missing the point...
Here's the corrected approach which is just like Alex's but does not require to import anything. I don't think it's an improvement though, unless there's a huge hierarchy of inherited classes as this approach stops as soon as the defining class is found, instead of returning the whole inheritance as getmro
does. As said, this is a very unlikely scenario.
def get_class_that_defined_method(method):
method_name = method.__name__
if method.__self__:
classes = [method.__self__.__class__]
else:
#unbound method
classes = [method.im_class]
while classes:
c = classes.pop()
if method_name in c.__dict__:
return c
else:
classes = list(c.__bases__) + classes
return None
And the Example:
>>> class A(object):
... def test(self): pass
>>> class B(A): pass
>>> class C(B): pass
>>> class D(A):
... def test(self): print 1
>>> class E(D,C): pass
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(A().test)
<class '__main__.A'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(A.test)
<class '__main__.A'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(B.test)
<class '__main__.A'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(C.test)
<class '__main__.A'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(D.test)
<class '__main__.D'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(E().test)
<class '__main__.D'>
>>> get_class_that_defined_method(E.test)
<class '__main__.D'>
>>> E().test()
1
Alex solution returns the same results. As long as Alex approach can be used, I would use it instead of this one.
I don't know why no one has ever brought this up or why the top answer has 50 upvotes when it is slow as hell, but you can also do the following:
def get_class_that_defined_method(meth):
return meth.im_class.__name__
For python 3 I believe this changed and you'll need to look into .__qualname__
.
I started doing something somewhat similar, basically the idea was checking whenever a method in a base class had been implemented or not in a sub class. Turned out the way I originally did it I could not detect when an intermediate class was actually implementing the method.
My workaround for it was quite simple actually; setting a method attribute and testing its presence later. Here's an simplification of the whole thing:
class A():
def method(self):
pass
method._orig = None # This attribute will be gone once the method is implemented
def run_method(self, *args, **kwargs):
if hasattr(self.method, '_orig'):
raise Exception('method not implemented')
self.method(*args, **kwargs)
class B(A):
pass
class C(B):
def method(self):
pass
class D(C):
pass
B().run_method() # ==> Raises Exception: method not implemented
C().run_method() # OK
D().run_method() # OK
UPDATE: Actually call method()
from run_method()
(isn't that the spirit?) and have it pass all arguments unmodified to the method.
P.S.: This answer does not directly answer the question. IMHO there are two reasons one would want to know which class defined a method; first is to point fingers at a class in debug code (such as in exception handling), and the second is to determine if the method has been re-implemented (where method is a stub meant to be implemented by the programmer). This answer solves that second case in a different way.