Getting all field names from a protocol buffer?

python protocol-buffers
user2253332 picture user2253332 · Jul 8, 2014 · Viewed 23.1k times · Source

I want to get all the field names of a proto into a list. Is there a way to do this? I looked in the documentation and there doesn't seem to be anything for this.

Answer

qfiard picture qfiard · Jul 8, 2014

Every proto class possess a DESCRIPTOR class variable that can be used to inspect the fields of corresponding protobuf messages.

Have a look at the documentation of the Descriptor and FieldDescriptor classes for more details.

Here is a simple example to get the FieldDescriptors of all the fields in message into a list:

res = message.DESCRIPTOR.fields

To get the names of the fields "exactly as they appear in the .proto file":

res = [field.name for field in message.DESCRIPTOR.fields]

or (from the comments):

res = message.DESCRIPTOR.fields_by_name.keys()

To get the full names of the fields "including containing scope":

res = [field.full_name for field in message.DESCRIPTOR.fields]

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