[python] How to know if an object has an attribute in Python

Is there a way in Python to determine if an object has some attribute? For example:

>>> a = SomeClass()
>>> a.someProperty = value
>>> a.property
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: SomeClass instance has no attribute 'property'

How can you tell if a has the attribute property before using it?

Here's a very intuitive approach :

if 'property' in dir(a):
    a.property

You can check whether object contains attribute by using hasattr builtin method.

For an instance if your object is a and you want to check for attribute stuff

>>> class a:
...     stuff = "something"
... 
>>> hasattr(a,'stuff')
True
>>> hasattr(a,'other_stuff')
False

The method signature itself is hasattr(object, name) -> bool which mean if object has attribute which is passed to second argument in hasattr than it gives boolean True or False according to the presence of name attribute in object.

As Jarret Hardie answered, hasattr will do the trick. I would like to add, though, that many in the Python community recommend a strategy of "easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" (EAFP) rather than "look before you leap" (LBYL). See these references:

EAFP vs LBYL (was Re: A little disappointed so far)
EAFP vs. LBYL @Code Like a Pythonista: Idiomatic Python

ie:

try:
    doStuff(a.property)
except AttributeError:
    otherStuff()

... is preferred to:

if hasattr(a, 'property'):
    doStuff(a.property)
else:
    otherStuff()

Depending on the situation you can check with isinstance what kind of object you have, and then use the corresponding attributes. With the introduction of abstract base classes in Python 2.6/3.0 this approach has also become much more powerful (basically ABCs allow for a more sophisticated way of duck typing).

One situation were this is useful would be if two different objects have an attribute with the same name, but with different meaning. Using only hasattr might then lead to strange errors.

One nice example is the distinction between iterators and iterables (see this question). The __iter__ methods in an iterator and an iterable have the same name but are semantically quite different! So hasattr is useless, but isinstance together with ABC's provides a clean solution.

However, I agree that in most situations the hasattr approach (described in other answers) is the most appropriate solution.

This is super simple, just use dir(object)
This will return a list of every available function and attribute of the object.

According to pydoc, hasattr(obj, prop) simply calls getattr(obj, prop) and catches exceptions. So, it is just as valid to wrap the attribute access with a try statement and catch AttributeError as it is to use hasattr() beforehand.

a = SomeClass()
try:
    return a.fake_prop
except AttributeError:
    return default_value

EDIT:This approach has serious limitation. It should work if the object is an iterable one. Please check the comments below.

If you are using Python 3.6 or higher like me there is a convenient alternative to check whether an object has a particular attribute:

if 'attr1' in obj1:
    print("attr1 = {}".format(obj1["attr1"]))

However, I'm not sure which is the best approach right now. using hasattr(), using getattr() or using in. Comments are welcome.

Another possible option, but it depends if what you mean by before:

undefined = object()

class Widget:

    def __init__(self):
        self.bar = 1

    def zoom(self):
        print("zoom!")

a = Widget()

bar = getattr(a, "bar", undefined)
if bar is not undefined:
    print("bar:%s" % (bar))

foo = getattr(a, "foo", undefined)
if foo is not undefined:
    print("foo:%s" % (foo))

zoom = getattr(a, "zoom", undefined)
if zoom is not undefined:
    zoom()

output:

bar:1
zoom!

This allows you to even check for None-valued attributes.

But! Be very careful you don't accidentally instantiate and compare undefined multiple places because the is will never work in that case.

Update:

because of what I was warning about in the above paragraph, having multiple undefineds that never match, I have recently slightly modified this pattern:

undefined = NotImplemented

NotImplemented, not to be confused with NotImplementedError, is a built-in: it semi-matches the intent of a JS undefined and you can reuse its definition everywhere and it will always match. The drawbacks is that it is "truthy" in booleans and it can look weird in logs and stack traces (but you quickly get over it when you know it only appears in this context).

You can use hasattr() or catch AttributeError, but if you really just want the value of the attribute with a default if it isn't there, the best option is just to use getattr():

getattr(a, 'property', 'default value')

I would like to suggest avoid this:

try:
    doStuff(a.property)
except AttributeError:
    otherStuff()

The user @jpalecek mentioned it: If an AttributeError occurs inside doStuff(), you are lost.

Maybe this approach is better:

try:
    val = a.property
except AttributeError:
    otherStuff()
else:
    doStuff(val)

I think what you are looking for is hasattr. However, I'd recommend something like this if you want to detect python properties-

try:
    getattr(someObject, 'someProperty')         
except AttributeError:
    print "Doesn't exist"
else
    print "Exists"

The disadvantage here is that attribute errors in the properties __get__ code are also caught.

Otherwise, do-

if hasattr(someObject, 'someProp'):
    #Access someProp/ set someProp
    pass

Docs:http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html
Warning:
The reason for my recommendation is that hasattr doesn't detect properties.
Link:http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-December/058498.html

Hope you expecting hasattr(), but try to avoid hasattr() and please prefer getattr(). getattr() is faster than hasattr()

using hasattr():

 if hasattr(a, 'property'):
     print a.property

same here i am using getattr to get property if there is no property it return none

   property = getattr(a,"property",None)
    if property:
        print property

hasattr() is the right answer. What I want to add is that hasattr() can also be used well in conjunction with assert (to avoid unnecessary if statements and make the code more readable):

assert hasattr(a, 'property'), 'object lacks property' 

As stated in another answer on SO: Asserts should be used to test conditions that should never happen. The purpose is to crash early in the case of a corrupt program state.