Python : Show method(s) available for an object/module

In python, I open a file for reading as follows

f = open("/var/log/messages")

where, f is a file object.

So for performing different file operations, I would like to know the methods available for the file object f.

dir(object) comes to the aid here.

So to know the methods available for file object f

#!/usr/bin/python

f = open("/var/log/messages")
print dir(f)

The output of the above script shall be as follows

['__class__', '__delattr__', '__doc__', '__enter__', '__exit__', '__format__', '__getattribute__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__iter__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'close', 'closed', 'encoding', 'errors', 'fileno', 'flush', 'isatty', 'mode', 'name', 'newlines', 'next', 'read', 'readinto', 'readline', 'readlines', 'seek', 'softspace', 'tell', 'truncate', 'write', 'writelines', 'xreadlines']

The above script can be modified as follows, to display the method names returned as a list, one per line



#!/usr/bin/python

f = open("/var/log/messages")


for method in dir(f):
     if hasattr(f,method):
        print method

__class__

__delattr__

__doc__

__enter__

__exit__

__format__

__getattribute__

__hash__

__init__

__iter__

__new__

__reduce__

__reduce_ex__

__repr__

__setattr__

__sizeof__

__str__

__subclasshook__

close

closed

encoding

errors

fileno

flush

isatty

mode

name

newlines

next

read

readinto

readline

readlines

see

softspace

tell

truncate

write

writelines

xreadlines

To know the methods available for a module, dir() again comes to the aid


import moduleName
dir(moduleName)

Let us illustrate with an example. Suppose I want to find the methods available for module os

#!/usr/bin/python

import os

print dir(os)

The output of above script is as follows

['EX_CANTCREAT', 'EX_CONFIG', 'EX_DATAERR', 'EX_IOERR', 'EX_NOHOST', 'EX_NOINPUT', 'EX_NOPERM', 'EX_NOUSER', 'EX_OK', 'EX_OSERR', 'EX_OSFILE', 'EX_PROTOCOL', 'EX_SOFTWARE', 'EX_TEMPFAIL', 'EX_UNAVAILABLE', 'EX_USAGE', 'F_OK', 'NGROUPS_MAX', 'O_APPEND', 'O_ASYNC', 'O_CREAT', 'O_DIRECT', 'O_DIRECTORY', 'O_DSYNC', 'O_EXCL', 'O_LARGEFILE', 'O_NDELAY', 'O_NOATIME', 'O_NOCTTY', 'O_NOFOLLOW', 'O_NONBLOCK', 'O_RDONLY', 'O_RDWR', 'O_RSYNC', 'O_SYNC', 'O_TRUNC', 'O_WRONLY', 'P_NOWAIT', 'P_NOWAITO', 'P_WAIT', 'R_OK', 'SEEK_CUR', 'SEEK_END', 'SEEK_SET', 'ST_APPEND', 'ST_MANDLOCK', 'ST_NOATIME', 'ST_NODEV', 'ST_NODIRATIME', 'ST_NOEXEC', 'ST_NOSUID', 'ST_RDONLY', 'ST_RELATIME', 'ST_SYNCHRONOUS', 'ST_WRITE', 'TMP_MAX', 'UserDict', 'WCONTINUED', 'WCOREDUMP', 'WEXITSTATUS', 'WIFCONTINUED', 'WIFEXITED', 'WIFSIGNALED', 'WIFSTOPPED', 'WNOHANG', 'WSTOPSIG', 'WTERMSIG', 'WUNTRACED', 'W_OK', 'X_OK', '_Environ', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '__package__', '_copy_reg', '_execvpe', '_exists', '_exit', '_get_exports_list', '_make_stat_result', '_make_statvfs_result', '_pickle_stat_result', '_pickle_statvfs_result', '_spawnvef', 'abort', 'access', 'altsep', 'chdir', 'chmod', 'chown', 'chroot', 'close', 'closerange', 'confstr', 'confstr_names', 'ctermid', 'curdir', 'defpath', 'devnull', 'dup', 'dup2', 'environ', 'errno', 'error', 'execl', 'execle', 'execlp', 'execlpe', 'execv', 'execve', 'execvp', 'execvpe', 'extsep', 'fchdir', 'fchmod', 'fchown', 'fdatasync', 'fdopen', 'fork', 'forkpty', 'fpathconf', 'fstat', 'fstatvfs', 'fsync', 'ftruncate', 'getcwd', 'getcwdu', 'getegid', 'getenv', 'geteuid', 'getgid', 'getgroups', 'getloadavg', 'getlogin', 'getpgid', 'getpgrp', 'getpid', 'getppid', 'getsid', 'getuid', 'isatty', 'kill', 'killpg', 'lchown', 'linesep', 'link', 'listdir', 'lseek', 'lstat', 'major', 'makedev', 'makedirs', 'minor', 'mkdir', 'mkfifo', 'mknod', 'name', 'nice', 'open', 'openpty', 'pardir', 'path', 'pathconf', 'pathconf_names', 'pathsep', 'pipe', 'popen', 'popen2', 'popen3', 'popen4', 'putenv', 'read', 'readlink', 'remove', 'removedirs', 'rename', 'renames', 'rmdir', 'sep', 'setegid', 'seteuid', 'setgid', 'setgroups', 'setpgid', 'setpgrp', 'setregid', 'setreuid', 'setsid', 'setuid', 'spawnl', 'spawnle', 'spawnlp', 'spawnlpe', 'spawnv', 'spawnve', 'spawnvp', 'spawnvpe', 'stat', 'stat_float_times', 'stat_result', 'statvfs', 'statvfs_result', 'strerror', 'symlink', 'sys', 'sysconf', 'sysconf_names', 'system', 'tcgetpgrp', 'tcsetpgrp', 'tempnam', 'times', 'tmpfile', 'tmpnam', 'ttyname', 'umask', 'uname', 'unlink', 'unsetenv', 'urandom', 'utime', 'wait', 'wait3', 'wait4', 'waitpid', 'walk', 'write']