How to get a function name as a string in Python?

Question

In Python, how do I get a function name as a string, without calling the function?

def my_function():
    pass

print get_function_name_as_string(my_function) # my_function is not in quotes

should output "my_function".

Is such function available in Python? If not, any ideas on how to implement get_function_name_as_string, in Python?

Answer 1

You could also use

import sys
this_function_name = sys._getframe().f_code.co_name

Answer 2

As an extension of @Demyn's answer, I created some utility functions which print the current function's name and current function's arguments:

import inspect
import logging
import traceback

def get_function_name():
    return traceback.extract_stack(None, 2)[0][2]

def get_function_parameters_and_values():
    frame = inspect.currentframe().f_back
    args, _, _, values = inspect.getargvalues(frame)
    return ([(i, values[i]) for i in args])

def my_func(a, b, c=None):
    logging.info('Running ' + get_function_name() + '(' + str(get_function_parameters_and_values()) +')')
    pass

logger = logging.getLogger()
handler = logging.StreamHandler()
formatter = logging.Formatter(
    '%(asctime)s [%(levelname)s] -> %(message)s')
handler.setFormatter(formatter)
logger.addHandler(handler)
logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)

my_func(1, 3) # 2016-03-25 17:16:06,927 [INFO] -> Running my_func([('a', 1), ('b', 3), ('c', None)])

Answer 3

sys._getframe() is not guaranteed to be available in all implementations of Python (see ref) ,you can use the traceback module to do the same thing, eg.

import traceback
def who_am_i():
   stack = traceback.extract_stack()
   filename, codeline, funcName, text = stack[-2]

   return funcName

A call to stack[-1] will return the current process details.

Answer 4

If you're interested in class methods too, Python 3.3+ has __qualname__ in addition to __name__.

def my_function():
    pass

class MyClass(object):
    def method(self):
        pass

print(my_function.__name__)         # gives "my_function"
print(MyClass.method.__name__)      # gives "method"

print(my_function.__qualname__)     # gives "my_function"
print(MyClass.method.__qualname__)  # gives "MyClass.method"

Answer 5

This function will return the caller's function name.

def func_name():
    import traceback
    return traceback.extract_stack(None, 2)[0][2]

It is like Albert Vonpupp's answer with a friendly wrapper.

Answer 6

You just want to get the name of the function here is a simple code for that. let say you have these functions defined

def function1():
    print "function1"

def function2():
    print "function2"

def function3():
    print "function3"
print function1.__name__

the output will be function1

Now let say you have these functions in a list

a = [function1 , function2 , funciton3]

to get the name of the functions

for i in a:
    print i.__name__

the output will be

function1
function2
function3