Object Identity and Type

Useful functions for finding out information about objects

  • type(obj) - Returns the type of an object (which itself is a special object)
     a = [1,2,3]
     t = type(a)                # t = ListType
  • id(obj) - Returns the identity of an object (an integer)
     i = id(a)
  • isinstance(obj,type) - Tests the type of an object
     import types
     if isinstance(a,types.ListType):
        print "a is a list"
     else:
        print "a is not a list"
<<< O'Reilly OSCON 2000, Introduction to Python, Slide 48
July 17, 2000, beazley@cs.uchicago.edu
>>>