getting attributes and methods of class without creating object

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/18/2010 2:11 AM, shuvro wrote:
>> to know the attributes of an instance of a class without
>> actually creating that instance is very difficult.

> Is it not possible with the existing python facilities (without adding
> external libraries) ?

To know what a function would do if you were to call it, without 
actually calling it, look at the function code with the dis (assembler) 
module.

#3.1
 >>> import dis
 >>> class C:
	def __init__(self, a): self.a = a
	
 >>> dis.dis(C.__init__)
   2           0 LOAD_FAST                1 (a)
               3 LOAD_FAST                0 (self)
               6 STORE_ATTR               0 (a)
               9 LOAD_CONST               0 (None)
              12 RETURN_VALUE

If you read the doc, or know assembler, you would see that the instance 
gets attribute a. Use dir(C) to find all the methods to disassemble.

Terry Jan Reedy