Getattr (object， 'x')完全等价于object.x。

getattr只在两种情况下有用。

你不能写object。X，因为您事先不知道您想要哪个属性(它来自字符串)。对于元编程非常有用。 您需要提供一个默认值。对象。如果没有y, y将引发AttributeError。但是getattr(object， 'y'， 5)将返回5。

getattr()在Python中实现switch语句的另一种用法。它使用两个反射来获取大小写类型。

import sys

class SwitchStatement(object):
    """ a class to implement switch statement and a way to show how to use gettattr in Pythion"""

    def case_1(self):
        return "value for case_1"

    def case_2(self):
        return "value for case_2"

    def case_3(self):
        return "value for case_3"

    def case_4(self):
        return "value for case_4"

    def case_value(self, case_type=1):
        """This is the main dispatchmethod, that uses gettattr"""
        case_method = 'case_' + str(case_type)
        # fetch the relevant method name
        # Get the method from 'self'. Default to a lambda.
        method = getattr(self, case_method, lambda: "Invalid case type")
        # Call the method as we return it
        return method()

def main(_):
    switch = SwitchStatement()
    print swtich.case_value(_)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main(int(sys.argv[1]))

下面是一个快速而简单的示例，演示了一个类如何根据使用getattr()执行的操作系统来触发save方法的不同版本。

import os

class Log(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.os = os.name
    def __getattr__(self, name):
        """ look for a 'save' attribute, or just 
          return whatever attribute was specified """
        if name == 'save':
            try:
                # try to dynamically return a save 
                # method appropriate for the user's system
                return getattr(self, self.os)
            except:
                # bail and try to return 
                # a default save method
                return getattr(self, '_save')
        else:
            return getattr(self, name)

    # each of these methods could have save logic specific to 
    # the system on which the script is executed
    def posix(self): print 'saving on a posix machine'
    def nt(self): print 'saving on an nt machine'
    def os2(self): print 'saving on an os2 machine'
    def ce(self): print 'saving on a ce machine'
    def java(self): print 'saving on a java machine'
    def riscos(self): print 'saving on a riscos machine'
    def _save(self): print 'saving on an unknown operating system'

    def which_os(self): print os.name

现在让我们在一个例子中使用这个类:

logger = Log()

# Now you can do one of two things:
save_func = logger.save
# and execute it, or pass it along 
# somewhere else as 1st class:
save_func()

# or you can just call it directly:
logger.save()

# other attributes will hit the else 
# statement and still work as expected
logger.which_os()

# getattr

class hithere():

    def french(self):
        print 'bonjour'

    def english(self):
        print 'hello'

    def german(self):
        print 'hallo'

    def czech(self):
        print 'ahoj'

    def noidea(self):
        print 'unknown language'


def dispatch(language):
    try:
        getattr(hithere(),language)()
    except:
        getattr(hithere(),'noidea')()
        # note, do better error handling than this

dispatch('french')
dispatch('english')
dispatch('german')
dispatch('czech')
dispatch('spanish')

getattr的一个非常常见的用例是将数据映射到函数。

例如，在Django或Pylons这样的web框架中，getattr可以直接将web请求的URL映射到将要处理它的函数。例如，如果你看一下Pylons的路由，你会发现(至少在默认情况下)它分割了一个请求的URL，比如:

http://www.example.com/customers/list

分为“客户”和“列表”。然后它搜索名为CustomerController的控制器类。假设它找到该类，它创建该类的实例，然后使用getattr获取其list方法。然后调用该方法，将请求作为参数传递给它。

一旦你掌握了这个思想，扩展web应用程序的功能就变得非常容易:只需向控制器类添加新的方法，然后在页面中创建链接，为这些方法使用适当的url。所有这些都是由getattr实现的。

我有时使用getattr(..)在代码中使用属性之前惰性地初始化次要属性。

比较以下内容:

class Graph(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.n_calls_to_plot = 0

    #...
    #A lot of code here
    #...

    def plot(self):
        self.n_calls_to_plot += 1

:

class Graph(object):
    def plot(self):
        self.n_calls_to_plot = 1 + getattr(self, "n_calls_to_plot", 0)

The advantage of the second way is that n_calls_to_plot only appears around the place in the code where it is used. This is good for readability, because (1) you can immediately see what value it starts with when reading how it's used, (2) it doesn't introduce a distraction into the __init__(..) method, which ideally should be about the conceptual state of the class, rather than some utility counter that is only used by one of the function's methods for technical reasons, such as optimisation, and has nothing to do with the meaning of the object.