Call a Python method by name

Question

If I have an object and a method name in a string, how can I call the method?

class Foo:     def bar1(self):         print 1     def bar2(self):         print 2  def callMethod(o, name):     ???  f = Foo() callMethod(f, "bar1") 

Answer 1

Use the built-in getattr() function:

class Foo:     def bar1(self):         print(1)     def bar2(self):         print(2)  def call_method(o, name):     return getattr(o, name)()   f = Foo() call_method(f, "bar1")  # prints 1 

You can also use setattr() for setting class attributes by names.

Answer 2

I had similar question, wanted to call instance method by reference. Here are funny things I found:

instance_of_foo=Foo()  method_ref=getattr(Foo, 'bar') method_ref(instance_of_foo) # instance_of_foo becomes self  instance_method_ref=getattr(instance_of_foo, 'bar') instance_method_ref() # instance_of_foo already bound into reference 

Python is amazing!