How to see the __name__ attribute of a class by using dir()

[Peter Otten]

Jennie wrote:

> The dir() built-in does not show the __name__ attribute of a class:
> 
>  >>> '__name__' in Foo.__dict__
> False
>  >>> Foo.__name__
> 'Foo'
> 
> I implementd my custom __dir__, but the dir() built-in do not want to
> call it:
> 
>  >>> class Foo:
> ...     @classmethod
> ...     def __dir__(cls):
> ...         return ['python']
> ...
>  >>> Foo.__dir__()
> ['python']
>  >>> dir(Foo)
> ['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', ...]
> 
> Can someone tell me where is the problem? Thanks a lot in advance

Implementing __dir__ as an instance method works:

>>> class Foo(object):
...     def __dir__(self): return ["python"]
... 
>>> dir(Foo())
['python']

So if you want to customise dir(Foo) you have to modify the metaclass:

>>> class Foo:
...     class __metaclass__(type):
...             def __dir__(self): return ["python"]
... 
>>> dir(Foo)
['python']