Check if a parameter is a Python module?

Question

How can I (pythonically) check if a parameter is a Python module? There's no type like module or package.

>>> os <module 'os' from '/usr/lib/python2.6/os.pyc'>  >>> isinstance(os, module) Traceback (most recent call last):   File "/usr/lib/gedit-2/plugins/pythonconsole/console.py", line 290, in __run     r = eval(command, self.namespace, self.namespace)   File "<string>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name 'module' is not defined 

I can do this:

>>> type(os) <type 'module'>     

But what do I compare it to? :(

I've made a simple module to quickly find methods in modules and get help texts for them. I supply a module var and a string to my method:

def gethelp(module, sstring):      # here i need to check if module is a module.      for func in listseek(dir(module), sstring):         help(module.__dict__[func]) 

Of course, this will work even if module = 'abc': then dir('abc') will give me the list of methods for string object, but I don't need that.

Answer 1

from types import ModuleType  isinstance(obj, ModuleType) 

Answer 2

>>> import inspect, os >>> inspect.ismodule(os) True