How to refer to a method name from with a method in Python?

Say I have the following class defined with the method foo:

class MyClass:
    def foo(self):
        print "My name is %s" % __name__

Now when I call foo() I expect/want to see this printed out

My name is foo  

However I get

My name is __main__  

And if I was to put the class definition into a module called FooBar I would ge开发者_Go百科t

My name is FooBar  

However if I do

m = MyClass()
print m.foo.__name__

I get exactly what I want which is

My name is foo

Can someone please help explain why __name__ refers to the module and not the method name ? Is there an easy way to get the method name?

Many thanks

This does what you're after:

from inspect import currentframe, getframeinfo

class MyClass:
    def foo(self):
        print "My name is %s" % getframeinfo(currentframe())[2]

Names always refer to local variables or (if one doesn't exist) then global variables. There is a a global __name__ that has the module's name.

class MyClass:
  def foo(self):
    print "My name is %s" % MyClass.foo.__name__

Of course, that's redundant and almost entirely pointless. Just type out the method name:

class MyClass:
  def foo(self):
    print "My name is %s" % "foo"
    print "My name is foo"

__name__ refers to the module because that's what it's supposed to do. The only way to get at the currently running function would be to introspect the stack.

The other answers explain it quite well so I contribute with a more concrete example.

name.py

def foo():
    print "name in foo",__name__

foo()
print "foo's name",foo.__name__
print "name at top",__name__

Output

name in foo __main__
foo's name foo
name at top __main__

name2.py

import name

Output

name in foo name
foo's name foo
name at top name

Notice how the __name__ refers to built-in property of the module? Which is __main__ if the module is run directly, or the name of the module if its imported.

You should have run across the if __name__=="__main__": snippet.

You can find the relevant docs here, go check them out. Good luck! :)

Use introspection with the inspect module.

import inspect

class MyClass:
    def foo(self):
        print "My name is %s" % inspect.stack()[0][3]

Have a look at the the inspect module.

Try:

>>> import inspect
>>> def foo():
...     print inspect.getframeinfo(inspect.currentframe())[2]
...
>>> foo()
foo

or:

>>> def foo2():
...     print inspect.stack()[0][3]
...
>>> foo2()
foo2

This will do it:

(You need to refer to self.__class__._name__.)

class MyClass:
    def foo(self):
        print "My name is %s" % self.__class__.__name__