What's the difference between built-in func getattr() and normal call of a func of a class

[Johnny]

Hi,

    I wonder what is the difference between the built-in function
getattr() and the normal call of a function of a class. Here is the
details:

getattr( object, name[, default])

Return the value of the named attributed of object. name must be a
string. If the string is the name of one of the object's attributes,
the result is the value of that attribute. For example, getattr(x,
'foobar') is equivalent to x.foobar. If the named attribute does not
exist, default is returned if provided, otherwise AttributeError is
raised.

    Is that to say the only difference between the two is that no
matter the specific function exists or not the built-in func will
always return a value, but "class.function" will not?