How do I override __getattr__ in Python without breaking the default behavior?

Question

I want to override the __getattr__ method on a class to do something fancy but I don\'t want to break the default behavior.

What\'s the correct way to d

Answer 1

To extend Michael answer, if you want to maintain the default behavior using __getattr__, you can do it like so:

class Foo(object):
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        if name == 'something':
            return 42

        # Default behaviour
        return self.__getattribute__(name)

Now the exception message is more descriptive:

>>> foo.something
42
>>> foo.error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
  File "", line 5, in __getattr__
AttributeError: 'Foo' object has no attribute 'error'