Python: getting a reference to a function from inside itself

Question

If I define a function:

def f(x):     return x+3 

I can later store objects as attributes of the function, like so:

f.thing="hello!" 

I would like to do this from inside the code of the function itself. Problem is, how do I get a reference to the function from inside itself?

Answer 1

The same way, just use its name.

>>> def g(x): ...   g.r = 4 ... >>> g <function g at 0x0100AD68> >>> g(3) >>> g.r 4 

Answer 2

If you are trying to do memoization, you can use a dictionary as a default parameter:

def f(x, memo={}):   if x not in memo:     memo[x] = x + 3   return memo[x]