How to get the calling class name inside a function

Question

I have 2 classes with a method called pick_up_phone.

class Work(object):

   def pick_up_phone(self):
       make_call()

class Home(object):

    def pick_up_phone(self):
       make_call()

The function make_call is not part of the class. How can I print the name of class that instigated the function within the function itself without passing anything to that function?

For example something like...

def make_call()
  print(????__.class__.__name__)???? <--- prints Home or Work class

Odd requirements. Why wouldn't you either make it part of the super class, or pass in the instance as a parameter? — Daniel Roseman, Aug 20 '15 at 10:20
It is odd, but the example explains the situation I have where I don't control the calling class only the function. I need to determine which class called my function. I know how to achieve this using ``self.__class__.__name__`` however, with a function this wouldn't work. — MarkK, Aug 20 '15 at 10:23
possible duplicate of [How to use inspect to get the caller's info from callee in Python?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3711184/how-to-use-inspect-to-get-the-callers-info-from-callee-in-python) — Peter Wood, Aug 20 '15 at 10:24
You can [access the stack frame using `inspect`](https://docs.python.org/2/library/inspect.html#the-interpreter-stack) — Peter Wood, Aug 20 '15 at 10:25
@PeterWood I looked at that answer, but I don't understand how it relates very well. Maybe I just don't understand the answer given. — MarkK, Aug 20 '15 at 10:26

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '15 at 10:28

You could use the inspect module:

from inspect import getouterframes, currentframe


def make_call():
    print getouterframes(currentframe())[-1][-2][0]


class Work(object):
    def pick_up_phone(self):
        make_call()


class Home(object):
    def pick_up_phone(self):
        make_call()


Home().pick_up_phone()
Work().pick_up_phone()

Output:

Home().pick_up_phone()

Work().pick_up_phone()

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

0

You could get call stack from traceback module (see examples here Print current call stack from a method in Python code), but as Daniel said it is very bad approach in most cases.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

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answered Aug 20 '15 at 10:25

ISanych

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How to get the calling class name inside a function

2 Answers2