How do I pass a method as a parameter in Python

Question

Is it possible to pass a method as a parameter to a method?

self.method2(self.method1)

def method1(self):
    return 'hello world'

def method2(self, methodToRun):
    result = methodToRun.call()
    return result

Answer 1

Yes it is, just use the name of the method, as you have written. Methods and functions are objects in Python, just like anything else, and you can pass them around the way you do variables. In fact, you can think about a method (or function) as a variable whose value is the actual callable code object.

Since you asked about methods, I'm using methods in the following examples, but note that everything below applies identically to functions (except without the self parameter).

To call a passed method or function, you just use the name it's bound to in the same way you would use the method's (or function's) regular name:

def method1(self):
    return 'hello world'

def method2(self, methodToRun):
    result = methodToRun()
    return result

obj.method2(obj.method1)

Note: I believe a __call__() method does exist, i.e. you could technically do methodToRun.__call__(), but you probably should never do so explicitly. __call__() is meant to be implemented, not to be invoked from your own code.

If you wanted method1 to be called with arguments, then things get a little bit more complicated. method2 has to be written with a bit of information about how to pass arguments to method1, and it needs to get values for those arguments from somewhere. For instance, if method1 is supposed to take one argument:

def method1(self, spam):
    return 'hello ' + str(spam)

then you could write method2 to call it with one argument that gets passed in:

def method2(self, methodToRun, spam_value):
    return methodToRun(spam_value)

or with an argument that it computes itself:

def method2(self, methodToRun):
    spam_value = compute_some_value()
    return methodToRun(spam_value)

You can expand this to other combinations of values passed in and values computed, like

def method1(self, spam, ham):
    return 'hello ' + str(spam) + ' and ' + str(ham)

def method2(self, methodToRun, ham_value):
    spam_value = compute_some_value()
    return methodToRun(spam_value, ham_value)

or even with keyword arguments

def method2(self, methodToRun, ham_value):
    spam_value = compute_some_value()
    return methodToRun(spam_value, ham=ham_value)

If you don't know, when writing method2, what arguments methodToRun is going to take, you can also use argument unpacking to call it in a generic way:

def method1(self, spam, ham):
    return 'hello ' + str(spam) + ' and ' + str(ham)

def method2(self, methodToRun, positional_arguments, keyword_arguments):
    return methodToRun(*positional_arguments, **keyword_arguments)

obj.method2(obj.method1, ['spam'], {'ham': 'ham'})

In this case positional_arguments needs to be a list or tuple or similar, and keyword_arguments is a dict or similar. In method2 you can modify positional_arguments and keyword_arguments (e.g. to add or remove certain arguments or change the values) before you call method1.

Answer 2

Yes it is possible. Just call it:

class Foo(object):
    def method1(self):
        pass
    def method2(self, method):
        return method()

foo = Foo()
foo.method2(foo.method1)

Answer 3

Here is your example re-written to show a stand-alone working example:

class Test:
    def method1(self):
        return 'hello world'

    def method2(self, methodToRun):
        result = methodToRun()
        return result

    def method3(self):
        return self.method2(self.method1)

test = Test()

print test.method3()

Answer 4

Use a lambda function.
So if you have no arguments, things become pretty trivial:

def method1():
    return 'hello world'

def method2(methodToRun):
    result = methodToRun()
    return result

method2(method1)

But say you have one (or more) arguments in method1:

def method1(param):
    return 'hello ' + str(param)

def method2(methodToRun):
    result = methodToRun()
    return result

Then you can simply invoke method2 as method2(lambda: method1('world')).

method2(lambda: method1('world'))
>>> hello world
method2(lambda: method1('reader'))
>>> hello reader

I find this much cleaner than the other answers mentioned here.

Answer 5

If you want to pass a method of a class as an argument but don't yet have the object on which you are going to call it, you can simply pass the object once you have it as the first argument (i.e. the "self" argument).

class FooBar:

    def __init__(self, prefix):
        self.prefix = prefix

    def foo(self, name):
        print "%s %s" % (self.prefix, name)


def bar(some_method):
    foobar = FooBar("Hello")
    some_method(foobar, "World")

bar(FooBar.foo)

This will print "Hello World"

Answer 6

Yes; functions (and methods) are first class objects in Python. The following works:

def foo(f):
    print "Running parameter f()."
    f()

def bar():
    print "In bar()."

foo(bar)

Outputs:

Running parameter f().
In bar().

These sorts of questions are trivial to answer using the Python interpreter or, for more features, the IPython shell.

Answer 7

Not exactly what you want, but a related useful tool is getattr(), to use method's name as a parameter.

class MyClass:
   def __init__(self):
      pass
   def MyMethod(self):
      print("Method ran")

# Create an object
object = MyClass()
# Get all the methods of a class
method_list = [func for func in dir(MyClass) if callable(getattr(MyClass, func))]
# You can use any of the methods in method_list
# "MyMethod" is the one we want to use right now

# This is the same as running "object.MyMethod()"
getattr(object,'MyMethod')()

Answer 8

Methods are objects like any other. So you can pass them around, store them in lists and dicts, do whatever you like with them. The special thing about them is they are callable objects so you can invoke __call__ on them. __call__ gets called automatically when you invoke the method with or without arguments so you just need to write methodToRun().

Answer 9

Example: a simple function call wrapper:

def measure_cpu_time(f, *args):
    t_start = time.process_time()
    ret = f(*args)
    t_end = time.process_time()
    return t_end - t_start, ret