python - get list of all functions in current module. inspecting current module does not work?

EDIT 1: What I am trying to do is

def testall(arg):
    return any(f(arg) for f in testfunctions)

def test1(arg):
    #code here
    # may call testall but wont call anyother test*

This works just fine:

def testall(arg):
    testfunctions = [obj for name,obj in inspect.getmembers(sys.modules[__name__]) 
                     if (inspect.isfunction(obj) and 
                         name.startwith('test') and name != 'testall')]
    return any(f(arg) for f in testfunctions)

def test1(arg):
    #code here
    # may call testall but wont call anyother test*

In this case, testfunctions isn't evaluated until testall is called, so there's no problem here—by that time, all top-level module code (including the test1 definition) will have been evaluated, so testfunctions will get all of the top-level functions. (I'm assuming here that testall or test1 is being called from an if __name__ == '__main__' block at the bottom of the module, or another script is doing import tests; tests.test1(10), or something similar.)

In fact, even if you explicitly named test1 and test2, there would be no problem:

def testall(arg):
    testfunctions = ('test1',)
    return any(f(arg) for f in testfunctions)

def test1(arg):
    #code here
    # may call testall but wont call anyother test*

Again, test1 is already defined by the time you call testall, so everything is fine.

If you want to understand why this works, you have to understand the stages here.

When you import a module, or run a top-level script, the first stage is compilation (unless there's already a cached .pyc file). The compiler doesn't need to know what value a name has, just whether it's local or global (or a closure cell), and it can already tell that sys and inspect and test1 are globals (because you don't assign to them in testall or in an enclosing scope).

Next, the interpreter executes the compiled bytecode for the top-level module, in order. This includes executing the function definitions. So, testall becomes a function, then test1 becomes a function, then test2 becomes a function. (A function is really just the appropriate compiled code, with some extra stuff attached, like the global namespace it was defined in.)

Later, when you call the testall function, the interpreter executes the function. This is when the list comprehension (in the first version) or the global name lookup (in the second) happens. Since the function definitions for test1 and test2 have already been evaluated and bound to global names in the module, everything works.

What if you instead later call test1, which calls testall? No problem. The interpreter executes test1, which has a call to testall, which is obviously already defined, so the interpreter calls that, and the rest is the same as in the previous paragraph.

So, what if you put a call to testall or test1 in between the test1 and test2 definitions? In that case, test2 wouldn't have been defined yet, so it would not appear in the list (first version), or would raise a NameError (second version). But as long as you don't do that, there's no problem. And there's no good reason to do so.

If you're worried about the horrible performance cost of computing testfunctions every time you call testall… Well, first, that's a silly worry; how many times are you going to call it? Are your functions really so fast that the time to call and filter getmembers even shows up on the radar? But if it really is a worry, just cache the value in your favorite of the usual ways—mutable default, privat global, function attribute, …:

def testall(arg, _functions_cache=[]):
    if not _functions_cache:
        _functions_cache.extend([…])

It can't be. Function definitions are executed in Python. The functions don't exist until their definition is executed. Your fset variable can't be defined until after the functions are defined.


To exclude any imported functions this works:

import sys
import inspect 
   [obj for name,obj in inspect.getmembers(sys.modules[__name__]) 
                         if (inspect.isfunction(obj) and 
                             name.startswith('test') and
                             obj.__module__ == __name__)]

Tags:

Python

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