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What is the Pythonic way to determine the type of an object?

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What is the Pythonic way to determine the type of an object? Are there multiple valid ways, and when should each be used?

We have obj.__class__, an attribute bound to the object's class. Or is it? When is that true, and when should we not rely on it?

We have type(obj), calling the constructor for the type type in order to get a reference to the type of obj. Or is it? When is that true, and when should we not rely on it?

Are there other ways to get at the type of a Python object? What reasons are there to choose or avoid them?

posted Dec 16, 2013 by Majula Joshi

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The type() builtin according to python docs, returns a "type object".
http://docs.python.org/2/library/types.html

And in this module is bunch of what I assume are "type objects". Is this correct?
http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#type

And type(), aside from being used in as an alternative to a class statement to create a new type, really just returns the object class, doesn't it?

>>> import types
>>> a = type(1)
>>> b = (1).__class__
>>> c = int
>>> d = types.IntType
>>> a is b is c is d
True
>>> 

If type() didn't exist would it be much more of a matter than the following?:

def type(x): 
 return x.__class__

What is the purpose of type()?
What exactly is a "type object"? Is it a "class"?
What is the purpose of the types module?

I understand the purpose of isinstance and why it's recommended over something like (type(1) is int). Because isinstance will also return True if the object is an instance of a subclass.

>>> class xint(int):
 def __init__(self):
 pass

>>> x = xint()
>>> type(x) is int
False
>>> isinstance(x, int)
True
>>> 
...