How to compare type of an object in Python?

Question

Basically I want to do this:

obj = \'str\'
type ( obj ) == string

I tried:

type ( obj ) == type ( string )

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Answer 1

To get the type, use the __class__ member, as in unknown_thing.__class__

Talk of duck-typing is useless here because it doesn't answer a perfectly good question. In my application code I never need to know the type of something, but it's still useful to have a way to learn an object's type. Sometimes I need to get the actual class to validate a unit test. Duck typing gets in the way there because all possible objects have the same API, but only one is correct. Also, sometimes I'm maintaining somebody else's code, and I have no idea what kind of object I've been passed. This is my biggest problem with dynamically typed languages like Python. Version 1 is very easy and quick to develop. Version 2 is a pain in the buns, especially if you didn't write version 1. So sometimes, when I'm working with a function I didn't write, I need to know the type of a parameter, just so I know what methods I can call on it.

That's where the __class__ parameter comes in handy. That (as far as I can tell) is the best way (maybe the only way) to get an object's type.