14.2 The pyclbr Module

The pyclbr module, shown in Example 14-1, contains a basic Python class parser.

In 1.5.2, the module exports a single function, readmodule, which parses a given module, and returns a list of all classes defined at the module's top level.

Example 14-1. Using the pyclbr Module

File: pyclbr-example-1.py

import pyclbr

mod = pyclbr.readmodule("cgi")

for k, v in mod.items():
    print k, v

MiniFieldStorage <pyclbr.Class instance at 7873b0>
InterpFormContentDict <pyclbr.Class instance at 79bd00>
FieldStorage <pyclbr.Class instance at 790e20>
SvFormContentDict <pyclbr.Class instance at 79b5e0>
StringIO <pyclbr.Class instance at 77dd90>
FormContent <pyclbr.Class instance at 79bd60>
FormContentDict <pyclbr.Class instance at 79a9c0>

In 2.0 and later, there's also an alternative interface, readmodule_ex, which returns global functions as well. This is shown in Example 14-2.

Example 14-2. Using the pyclbr Module to Read Classes and Functions

File: pyclbr-example-3.py

import pyclbr

# 2.0 and later
mod = pyclbr.readmodule_ex("cgi")

for k, v in mod.items():
    print k, v

MiniFieldStorage <pyclbr.Class instance at 00905D2C>
parse_header <pyclbr.Function instance at 00905BD4>
test <pyclbr.Function instance at 00906FBC>
print_environ_usage <pyclbr.Function instance at 00907C94>
parse_multipart <pyclbr.Function instance at 00905294>
FormContentDict <pyclbr.Class instance at 008D3494>
initlog <pyclbr.Function instance at 00904AAC>
parse <pyclbr.Function instance at 00904EFC>
StringIO <pyclbr.Class instance at 00903EAC>
SvFormContentDict <pyclbr.Class instance at 00906824>
...

To get more information about each class, use the various attributes in the Class instances, as Example 14-3 shows.

Example 14-3. Using the pyclbr Module

File: pyclbr-example-2.py

import pyclbr
import string

mod = pyclbr.readmodule("cgi")

def dump(c):
    # print class header
    s = "class " + c.name
    if c.super:
        s = s +  "(" + string.join(map(lambda v: v.name, c.super), ", ") + ")"
    print s + ":"
    # print method names, sorted by line number
    methods = c.methods.items()
    methods.sort(lambda a, b: cmp(a[1], b[1]))
    for method, lineno in methods:
        print "  def " + method
    print

for k, v in mod.items():
    dump(v)

class MiniFieldStorage:
  def _ _init_ _
  def _ _repr_ _

class InterpFormContentDict(SvFormContentDict):
  def _ _getitem_ _
  def values
  def items

...