Type Objects

Python documentation

typePyTypeObject

Part of the

Limited API

(as an opaque struct).The C structure of the objects used to describe built-in types.

PyTypeObject

PyType_Type

Part of the

Stable ABI

.This is the type object for type objects; it is the same object as

type

in the Python layer.

intPyType_Check(

PyObject

*o)

Return non-zero if the object o is a type object, including instances of types derived from the standard type object. Return 0 in all other cases. This function always succeeds.

intPyType_CheckExact(

PyObject

*o)

Return non-zero if the object o is a type object, but not a subtype of the standard type object. Return 0 in all other cases. This function always succeeds.

unsignedintPyType_ClearCache()

Part of the

Stable ABI

.Clear the internal lookup cache. Return the current version tag.

unsignedlongPyType_GetFlags(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

.Return the

tp_flags

member of type. This function is primarily meant for use with Py_LIMITED_API; the individual flag bits are guaranteed to be stable across Python releases, but access to tp_flags itself is not part of the

limited API

.

Added in version 3.2.

Changed in version 3.4: The return type is now unsignedlong rather than long.

PyObject

*PyType_GetDict(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Return the type object’s internal namespace, which is otherwise only exposed via a read-only proxy (

cls.__dict__

). This is a replacement for accessing

tp_dict

directly. The returned dictionary must be treated as read-only.

This function is meant for specific embedding and language-binding cases, where direct access to the dict is necessary and indirect access (e.g. via the proxy or

PyObject_GetAttr()

) isn’t adequate.

Extension modules should continue to use tp_dict, directly or indirectly, when setting up their own types.

Added in version 3.12.

voidPyType_Modified(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

.Invalidate the internal lookup cache for the type and all of its subtypes. This function must be called after any manual modification of the attributes or base classes of the type.

intPyType_AddWatcher(

PyType_WatchCallback

callback)

Register callback as a type watcher. Return a non-negative integer ID which must be passed to future calls to

PyType_Watch()

. In case of error (e.g. no more watcher IDs available), return -1 and set an exception.

In free-threaded builds,

PyType_AddWatcher()

is not thread-safe, so it must be called at start up (before spawning the first thread).

Added in version 3.12.

intPyType_ClearWatcher(intwatcher_id)

Clear watcher identified by watcher_id (previously returned from

PyType_AddWatcher()

). Return 0 on success, -1 on error (e.g. if watcher_id was never registered.)

An extension should never call PyType_ClearWatcher with a watcher_id that was not returned to it by a previous call to

PyType_AddWatcher()

.

Added in version 3.12.

intPyType_Watch(intwatcher_id,

PyObject

*type)

Mark type as watched. The callback granted watcher_id by

PyType_AddWatcher()

will be called whenever

PyType_Modified()

reports a change to type. (The callback may be called only once for a series of consecutive modifications to type, if _PyType_Lookup() is not called on type between the modifications; this is an implementation detail and subject to change.)

An extension should never call PyType_Watch with a watcher_id that was not returned to it by a previous call to

PyType_AddWatcher()

.

Added in version 3.12.

intPyType_Unwatch(intwatcher_id,

PyObject

*type)

Mark type as not watched. This undoes a previous call to

PyType_Watch()

. type must not be NULL.

An extension should never call this function with a watcher_id that was not returned to it by a previous call to

PyType_AddWatcher()

.

On success, this function returns 0. On failure, this function returns -1 with an exception set.

Added in version 3.12.

typedefint(*PyType_WatchCallback)(

PyObject

*type)

Type of a type-watcher callback function.

The callback must not modify type or cause

PyType_Modified()

to be called on type or any type in its MRO; violating this rule could cause infinite recursion.

Added in version 3.12.

intPyType_HasFeature(

PyTypeObject

*o, intfeature)

Return non-zero if the type object o sets the feature feature. Type features are denoted by single bit flags.

intPyType_FastSubclass(

PyTypeObject

*type, intflag)

Return non-zero if the type object type sets the subclass flag flag. Subclass flags are denoted by

Py_TPFLAGS_*_SUBCLASS

. This function is used by many _Check functions for common types.

See also

PyObject_TypeCheck()

, which is used as a slower alternative in _Check functions for types that don’t come with subclass flags.

intPyType_IS_GC(

PyTypeObject

*o)

Return true if the type object includes support for the cycle detector; this tests the type flag

Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_GC

.

intPyType_IsSubtype(

PyTypeObject

*a,

PyTypeObject

*b)

Part of the

Stable ABI

.Return true if a is a subtype of b.

This function only checks for actual subtypes, which means that

__subclasscheck__()

is not called on b. Call

PyObject_IsSubclass()

to do the same check that

issubclass()

would do.

PyObject

*PyType_GenericAlloc(

PyTypeObject

*type,

Py_ssize_t

nitems)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

.Generic handler for the

tp_alloc

slot of a type object. Uses Python’s default memory allocation mechanism to allocate memory for a new instance, zeros the memory, then initializes the memory as if by calling

PyObject_Init()

or

PyObject_InitVar()

.

Do not call this directly to allocate memory for an object; call the type’s

tp_alloc

slot instead.

For types that support garbage collection (i.e., the

Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_GC

flag is set), this function behaves like

PyObject_GC_New

or

PyObject_GC_NewVar

(except the memory is guaranteed to be zeroed before initialization), and should be paired with

PyObject_GC_Del()

in

tp_free

. Otherwise, it behaves like

PyObject_New

or

PyObject_NewVar

(except the memory is guaranteed to be zeroed before initialization) and should be paired with

PyObject_Free()

in tp_free.

PyObject

*PyType_GenericNew(

PyTypeObject

*type,

PyObject

*args,

PyObject

*kwds)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

.Generic handler for the

tp_new

slot of a type object. Creates a new instance using the type’s

tp_alloc

slot and returns the resulting object.

intPyType_Ready(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

.Finalize a type object. This should be called on all type objects to finish their initialization. This function is responsible for adding inherited slots from a type’s base class. Return 0 on success, or return -1 and sets an exception on error.

Note

If some of the base classes implements the GC protocol and the provided type does not include the

Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_GC

in its flags, then the GC protocol will be automatically implemented from its parents. On the contrary, if the type being created does include Py_TPFLAGS_HAVE_GC in its flags then it must implement the GC protocol itself by at least implementing the

tp_traverse

handle.

PyObject

*PyType_GetName(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.11.Return the type’s name. Equivalent to getting the type’s

__name__

attribute.

Added in version 3.11.

PyObject

*PyType_GetQualName(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.11.Return the type’s qualified name. Equivalent to getting the type’s

__qualname__

attribute.

Added in version 3.11.

PyObject

*PyType_GetFullyQualifiedName(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.13.Return the type’s fully qualified name. Equivalent to f"{type.__module__}.{type.__qualname__}", or

type.__qualname__

if

type.__module__

is not a string or is equal to "builtins".

Added in version 3.13.

PyObject

*PyType_GetModuleName(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.13.Return the type’s module name. Equivalent to getting the

type.__module__

attribute.

Added in version 3.13.

void*PyType_GetSlot(

PyTypeObject

*type, intslot)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.4.Return the function pointer stored in the given slot. If the result is NULL, this indicates that either the slot is NULL, or that the function was called with invalid parameters. Callers will typically cast the result pointer into the appropriate function type.

See

PyType_Slot.slot

for possible values of the slot argument.

Added in version 3.4.

Changed in version 3.10:

PyType_GetSlot()

can now accept all types. Previously, it was limited to

heap types

.

PyObject

*PyType_GetModule(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Return value: Borrowed reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.10.Return the module object associated with the given type when the type was created using

PyType_FromModuleAndSpec()

.

The returned reference is

borrowed

from type, and will be valid as long as you hold a reference to type. Do not release it with

Py_DECREF()

or similar.

If no module is associated with the given type, sets

TypeError

and returns NULL.

This function is usually used to get the module in which a method is defined. Note that in such a method, PyType_GetModule(Py_TYPE(self)) may not return the intended result. Py_TYPE(self) may be a subclass of the intended class, and subclasses are not necessarily defined in the same module as their superclass. See

PyCMethod

to get the class that defines the method. See

PyType_GetModuleByDef()

for cases when PyCMethod cannot be used.

Added in version 3.9.

void*PyType_GetModuleState(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.10.Return the state of the module object associated with the given type. This is a shortcut for calling

PyModule_GetState()

on the result of

PyType_GetModule()

.

If no module is associated with the given type, sets

TypeError

and returns NULL.

If the type has an associated module but its state is NULL, returns NULL without setting an exception.

Added in version 3.9.

PyObject

*PyType_GetModuleByDef(

PyTypeObject

*type, struct

PyModuleDef

*def)

Return value: Borrowed reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.13.Find the first superclass whose module was created from the given

PyModuleDef

def, and return that module.

If no module is found, raises a

TypeError

and returns NULL.

This function is intended to be used together with

PyModule_GetState()

to get module state from slot methods (such as

tp_init

or

nb_add

) and other places where a method’s defining class cannot be passed using the

PyCMethod

calling convention.

The returned reference is

borrowed

from type, and will be valid as long as you hold a reference to type. Do not release it with

Py_DECREF()

or similar.

Added in version 3.11.

intPyType_GetBaseByToken(

PyTypeObject

*type, void*token,

PyTypeObject

**result)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.14.Find the first superclass in type’s

method resolution order

whose

Py_tp_token

token is equal to the given one.

If found, set *result to a new

strong reference

to it and return 1.

If not found, set *result to NULL and return 0.

On error, set *result to NULL and return -1 with an exception set.

The result argument may be NULL, in which case *result is not set. Use this if you need only the return value.

The token argument may not be NULL.

Added in version 3.14.

intPyUnstable_Type_AssignVersionTag(

PyTypeObject

*type)

This is

Unstable API

. It may change without warning in minor releases.

Attempt to assign a version tag to the given type.

Returns 1 if the type already had a valid version tag or a new one was assigned, or 0 if a new tag could not be assigned.

Added in version 3.12.

intPyType_SUPPORTS_WEAKREFS(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Return true if instances of type support creating weak references, false otherwise. This function always succeeds. type must not be NULL.

Creating Heap-Allocated Types

The following functions and structs are used to create

heap types

.

PyObject

*PyType_FromMetaclass(

PyTypeObject

*metaclass,

PyObject

*module,

PyType_Spec

*spec,

PyObject

*bases)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.12.Create and return a

heap type

from the spec (see

Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE

).

The metaclass metaclass is used to construct the resulting type object. When metaclass is NULL, the metaclass is derived from bases (or Py_tp_base[s] slots if bases is NULL, see below).

Metaclasses that override

tp_new

are not supported, except if tp_new is NULL.

The bases argument can be used to specify base classes; it can either be only one class or a tuple of classes. If bases is NULL, the

Py_tp_bases

slot is used instead. If that also is NULL, the

Py_tp_base

slot is used instead. If that also is NULL, the new type derives from

object

.

The module argument can be used to record the module in which the new class is defined. It must be a module object or NULL. If not NULL, the module is associated with the new type and can later be retrieved with

PyType_GetModule()

. The associated module is not inherited by subclasses; it must be specified for each class individually.

This function calls

PyType_Ready()

on the new type.

Note that this function does not fully match the behavior of calling

type()

or using the

class

statement. With user-provided base types or metaclasses, prefer

calling

type (or the metaclass) over PyType_From* functions. Specifically:

__new__()

is not called on the new class (and it must be set to type.__new__).

__init__()

is not called on the new class.

__init_subclass__()

is not called on any bases.

__set_name__()

is not called on new descriptors.

Added in version 3.12.

PyObject

*PyType_FromModuleAndSpec(

PyObject

*module,

PyType_Spec

*spec,

PyObject

*bases)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.10.Equivalent to PyType_FromMetaclass(NULL,module,spec,bases).

Added in version 3.9.

Changed in version 3.10: The function now accepts a single class as the bases argument and NULL as the tp_doc slot.

Changed in version 3.12: The function now finds and uses a metaclass corresponding to the provided base classes. Previously, only

type

instances were returned.

The

tp_new

of the metaclass is ignored. which may result in incomplete initialization. Creating classes whose metaclass overrides tp_new is deprecated.

Changed in version 3.14: Creating classes whose metaclass overrides

tp_new

is no longer allowed.

PyObject

*PyType_FromSpecWithBases(

PyType_Spec

*spec,

PyObject

*bases)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.3.Equivalent to PyType_FromMetaclass(NULL,NULL,spec,bases).

Added in version 3.3.

Changed in version 3.12: The function now finds and uses a metaclass corresponding to the provided base classes. Previously, only

type

instances were returned.

The

tp_new

of the metaclass is ignored. which may result in incomplete initialization. Creating classes whose metaclass overrides tp_new is deprecated.

Changed in version 3.14: Creating classes whose metaclass overrides

tp_new

is no longer allowed.

PyObject

*PyType_FromSpec(

PyType_Spec

*spec)

Return value: New reference. Part of the

Stable ABI

.Equivalent to PyType_FromMetaclass(NULL,NULL,spec,NULL).

Changed in version 3.12: The function now finds and uses a metaclass corresponding to the base classes provided in Py_tp_base[s] slots. Previously, only

type

instances were returned.

The

tp_new

of the metaclass is ignored. which may result in incomplete initialization. Creating classes whose metaclass overrides tp_new is deprecated.

Changed in version 3.14: Creating classes whose metaclass overrides

tp_new

is no longer allowed.

intPyType_Freeze(

PyTypeObject

*type)

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.14.Make a type immutable: set the

Py_TPFLAGS_IMMUTABLETYPE

flag.

All base classes of type must be immutable.

On success, return 0. On error, set an exception and return -1.

The type must not be used before it’s made immutable. For example, type instances must not be created before the type is made immutable.

Added in version 3.14.

typePyType_Spec

Part of the

Stable ABI

(including all members).Structure defining a type’s behavior.

constchar*name

Name of the type, used to set

PyTypeObject.tp_name

.

intbasicsize

If positive, specifies the size of the instance in bytes. It is used to set

PyTypeObject.tp_basicsize

.

If zero, specifies that

tp_basicsize

should be inherited.

If negative, the absolute value specifies how much space instances of the class need in addition to the superclass. Use

PyObject_GetTypeData()

to get a pointer to subclass-specific memory reserved this way. For negative basicsize, Python will insert padding when needed to meet

tp_basicsize

’s alignment requirements.

Changed in version 3.12: Previously, this field could not be negative.

intitemsize

Size of one element of a variable-size type, in bytes. Used to set

PyTypeObject.tp_itemsize

. See tp_itemsize documentation for caveats.

If zero,

tp_itemsize

is inherited. Extending arbitrary variable-sized classes is dangerous, since some types use a fixed offset for variable-sized memory, which can then overlap fixed-sized memory used by a subclass. To help prevent mistakes, inheriting itemsize is only possible in the following situations:

The base is not variable-sized (its

tp_itemsize

is zero).

The requested

PyType_Spec.basicsize

is positive, suggesting that the memory layout of the base class is known.

The requested

PyType_Spec.basicsize

is zero, suggesting that the subclass does not access the instance’s memory directly.

With the

Py_TPFLAGS_ITEMS_AT_END

flag.

unsignedintflags

Type flags, used to set

PyTypeObject.tp_flags

.

If the Py_TPFLAGS_HEAPTYPE flag is not set,

PyType_FromSpecWithBases()

sets it automatically.

PyType_Slot

*slots

Array of

PyType_Slot

structures. Terminated by the special slot value {0,NULL}.

Each slot ID should be specified at most once.

typePyType_Slot

Part of the

Stable ABI

(including all members).Structure defining optional functionality of a type, containing a slot ID and a value pointer.

intslot

A slot ID.

Slot IDs are named like the field names of the structures

PyTypeObject

,

PyNumberMethods

,

PySequenceMethods

,

PyMappingMethods

and

PyAsyncMethods

with an added Py_ prefix. For example, use:

Py_tp_dealloc

to set

PyTypeObject.tp_dealloc

Py_nb_add

to set

PyNumberMethods.nb_add

Py_sq_length

to set

PySequenceMethods.sq_length

An additional slot is supported that does not correspond to a PyTypeObject struct field:

Py_tp_token

The following “offset” fields cannot be set using

PyType_Slot

:

tp_weaklistoffset

(use

Py_TPFLAGS_MANAGED_WEAKREF

instead if possible)

tp_dictoffset

(use

Py_TPFLAGS_MANAGED_DICT

instead if possible)

tp_vectorcall_offset

(use "__vectorcalloffset__" in

PyMemberDef

)

If it is not possible to switch to a MANAGED flag (for example, for vectorcall or to support Python older than 3.12), specify the offset in

Py_tp_members

. See

PyMemberDef documentation

for details.

The following internal fields cannot be set at all when creating a heap type:

tp_dict

,

tp_mro

,

tp_cache

,

tp_subclasses

, and

tp_weaklist

.

Setting

Py_tp_bases

or

Py_tp_base

may be problematic on some platforms. To avoid issues, use the bases argument of

PyType_FromSpecWithBases()

instead.

Changed in version 3.9: Slots in

PyBufferProcs

may be set in the unlimited API.

Changed in version 3.14: The field

tp_vectorcall

can now be set using

Py_tp_vectorcall

. See the field’s documentation for details.

void*pfunc

The desired value of the slot. In most cases, this is a pointer to a function.

pfunc values may not be NULL, except for the following slots:

Py_tp_doc

Py_tp_token

(for clarity, prefer

Py_TP_USE_SPEC

rather than NULL)

Py_tp_token

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.14.A

slot

that records a static memory layout ID for a class.

If the

PyType_Spec

of the class is statically allocated, the token can be set to the spec using the special value

Py_TP_USE_SPEC

:

staticPyType_Slotfoo_slots[]={{Py_tp_token,Py_TP_USE_SPEC},It can also be set to an arbitrary pointer, but you must ensure that:

The pointer outlives the class, so it’s not reused for something else while the class exists.

It “belongs” to the extension module where the class lives, so it will not clash with other extensions.

Use

PyType_GetBaseByToken()

to check if a class’s superclass has a given token – that is, check whether the memory layout is compatible.

To get the token for a given class (without considering superclasses), use

PyType_GetSlot()

with Py_tp_token.

Added in version 3.14.

Py_TP_USE_SPEC

Part of the

Stable ABI

since version 3.14.Used as a value with

Py_tp_token

to set the token to the class’s

PyType_Spec

. Expands to NULL.

Added in version 3.14.