Getting the class name of an instance?

type() ?

>>> class A:
...     def whoami(self):
...         print(type(self).__name__)
...
>>>
>>> class B(A):
...     pass
...
>>>
>>>
>>> o = B()
>>> o.whoami()
'B'
>>>

Have you tried the __name__ attribute of the class? ie type(x).__name__ will give you the name of the class, which I think is what you want.

>>> import itertools
>>> x = itertools.count(0)
>>> type(x).__name__
'count'

If you're still using Python 2, note that the above method works with new-style classes only (in Python 3+ all classes are "new-style" classes). Your code might use some old-style classes. The following works for both:

x.__class__.__name__

Do you want the name of the class as a string?

instance.__class__.__name__