How to iterate over all variables in memory in Python, for debugging purposes?

Asked Sep 21 '22 at 20:46

Active Sep 21 '22 at 20:47

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While debugging I want to know if, at some point, I am holding an instance of a particular class. I want to iterate over all the variables that I currently have any reference to, filter them with isinstance, and then, if I find an instance of that class, then I will decide if it's good practice or not to use it there.

It's basically just a quick and dirty way to explore my options and discover things about code I'm only getting into.

edited Sep 21 '22 at 20:47

jonrsharpe

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asked Sep 21 '22 at 20:46

LoneCodeRanger

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https://docs.python.org/3/library/gc.html#gc.get_objects? – jonrsharpe Sep 21 '22 at 20:48
@jonrsharpe that works! I was just thinking that that's the king of thing that the garbage collector would know how to do! – LoneCodeRanger Sep 21 '22 at 20:51
@jonrsharpe, got a problem though: it doesn't tell me *where* it found that object, i.e. what name currently holds it. Any way to know that? – LoneCodeRanger Sep 21 '22 at 20:53
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See https://stackoverflow.com/q/62686644/3001761 – jonrsharpe Sep 21 '22 at 20:53
This question didn't really help, I think using `gc` is a better lead. Actually, we're getting somewhere with `gc.get_referrers()`. – LoneCodeRanger Sep 21 '22 at 21:01
However, I'm looking for a name to get to that reference, get_referrers only gets me instance of objects, not their names. – LoneCodeRanger Sep 21 '22 at 21:16
I think there's a solution in there somewhere, I'm just to tired to see it right now. Will be back on it tomorrow :) – LoneCodeRanger Sep 21 '22 at 21:17

How to iterate over all variables in memory in Python, for debugging purposes?

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