Why should I ever use "getattr()"?

Question

From my understanding, getattr(object, "method") is equivalent to object.method(). If this is true, what is the point of using getattr?

Answer 1

Objects in Python can have attributes. For example you have an object person, that has several attributes: name, gender, etc. You access these attributes (be it methods or data objects) usually writing: person.name, person.gender, person.the_method(), etc.

But what if you don't know the attribute's name at the time you write the program? For example you have attribute's name stored in a variable called gender_attribute_name.

if

attr_name = 'gender'

then, instead of writing

gender = person.gender

you can write

gender = getattr(person, attr_name)

Some practice:

>>> class Person():
...     name = 'Victor'
...     def say(self, what):
...         print(self.name, what)
... 
>>> getattr(Person, 'name')
'Victor'
>>> attr_name = 'name'
>>> person = Person()
>>> getattr(person, attr_name)
'Victor'
>>> getattr(person, 'say')('Hello')
Victor Hello
>>>