Python check instances of classes

python object instance
exbluesbreaker picture exbluesbreaker · Jan 27, 2013 · Viewed 94.7k times · Source

Is there any way to check if object is an instance of a class? Not an instance of a concrete class, but an instance of any class.

I can check that an object is not a class, not a module, not a traceback etc., but I am interested in a simple solution.

Answer

Matt Alcock picture Matt Alcock · Jan 27, 2013

isinstance() is your friend here. It returns a boolean and can be used in the following ways to check types.

if isinstance(obj, (int, long, float, complex)):
    print obj, "is a built-in number type"

if isinstance(obj, MyClass):
    print obj, "is of type MyClass"

Hope this helps.

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