Special read-only attributes of code objects in Python

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Don’t Worry, because I’m here to make it as painless and entertaining as possible!

To set the stage: what are these mysterious “special” attributes? Well, they’re basically hidden gems that you can access on certain types of objects in Python, but only if you know the secret handshake. And let me tell ya, this handshake involves a lot of typing and copying from Stack Overflow.

So what kind of code objects have these special attributes? Well, there are quite a few here’s just a small sampling:
– Functions (yep, those things you write to do stuff)
– Classes (the blueprints for creating new types of objects)
– Modules (those files that contain your code and can be imported into other scripts)
– Built-in functions like len(), max(), and min()

And what kind of special attributes are we talking about here? Well, there’s __name__, which tells you the name of the current module or function. There’s also __doc__ (short for “documentation”), which is a string that contains a brief description of what the object does. And then there’s __dict__, which gives you access to all the attributes and methods defined within an object but only if it’s a class, not a function or module.

Now, let me show you how to use these special attributes in action! First, let’s create a simple function called “my_function” that takes two numbers as arguments:

# This function takes two numbers as arguments and adds them together
def my_function(x, y):
    """This function adds x and y together"""
    return x + y # Returns the sum of x and y

# Creating an instance of the function and passing in two numbers as arguments
result = my_function(5, 10)

# Printing the result
print(result) # Prints 15

Notice the docstring (that’s what we call it when there’s a __doc__ attribute) that explains what the function does. If you run this code in your Python interpreter, you can access the special attributes like so:

# Importing the module "my_module"
import my_module

# Defining a function "my_function" that takes in two parameters, x and y
def my_function(x, y):
    """This function adds x and y together""" # Docstring explaining the purpose of the function
    return x + y # Returns the sum of x and y

# Printing the name of the function using the __name__ attribute
print(my_function.__name__) # Prints "my_function"

# Printing the docstring of the function using the __doc__ attribute
print(my_function.__doc__) # Prints "This function adds x and y together"

# Printing a list of all the attributes defined within the function using the dir() function
print(dir(my_function)) # Prints a list of all the attributes defined within the function, including __name__ and __doc__

And that’s it! You now have access to some pretty cool special read-only attributes in Python. But be careful using these attributes too much can make your code look like you’re trying too hard to impress people with your knowledge of obscure programming concepts. So use them sparingly, and only when they add value to your code!

Later!

SICORPS