I've got a simple class from which I create two objects. I now want to print the name of the object from within the class. So something like this:
class Example: def printSelf(self): print self object1 = Example() object2 = Example() object1.printSelf() object2.printSelf() I need this to print:
object1 object2 Unfortunately this just prints <myModule.Example instance at 0xb67e77cc>
Does anybody know how I can do this?
object1 is just an identifier(or variable) pointing to an instance object, objects don't have names.
>>> class A: ... def foo(self): ... print self ... >>> a = A() >>> b = a >>> c = b >>> a,b,c #all of them point to the same instance object (<__main__.A instance at 0xb61ee8ec>, <__main__.A instance at 0xb61ee8ec>, <__main__.A instance at 0xb61ee8ec>) a,b,c are simply references that allow us to access a same object, when an object has 0 references it is automatically garbage collected.
A quick hack will be to pass the name when creating the instance:
>>> class A: ... def __init__(self, name): ... self.name = name ... >>> a = A('a') >>> a.name 'a' >>> foo = A('foo') >>> foo.name 'foo' >>> bar = foo # additional references to an object will still return the original name >>> bar.name 'foo' 
The object does not have a "name". A variable which refers to the object is not a "name" of the object. The object cannot know about any of the variables which refer to it, not least because variables are not a first-class subject of the language.
If you wish to alter the way that object prints, override either __repr__ or __unicode__.
If this is for debugging purposes, use a debugger. That's what it's for.
The common way to do this is something along these lines:
class Example(object): def __init__(self,name): self.name=name def __str__(self): return self.name object1 = Example('object1') object2 = Example('object2') print object1 print object2 Prints:
object1 object2 However, there is no guarantee that this object remains bound to the original name:
object1 = Example('object1') object2 = object1 print object1 print object2 Prints object1, as expected, twice. If you want to see things under the hood -- use a debugger.
