How to check for a function type in Python?

Question

I've got a list of things, of which some can also be functions. If it is a function I would like to execute it. For this I do a type-check. This normally works for other types, like str, int or float. But for a function it doesn't seem to work:

>>> def f():
...     pass
... 
>>> type(f)
<type 'function'>
>>> if type(f) == function: print 'It is a function!!'
... 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'function' is not defined
>>>

Does anybody know how I can check for a function type?

Answer 1

Don't check types, check actions. You don't actually care if it's a function (it might be a class instance with a __call__ method, for example) - you just care if it can be called. So use callable(f).