python - Generic[T] base class - how to get type of T from within instance?

Question

Assume you have a Python class that inherits from Generic[T]. Is there any way to get a hold of the actual type passed in from within the class/instance?

For example,

from typing import TypeVar, Type
T = TypeVar('T')

class Test(Generic[T]):
    def hello(self):
      my_type = T  # this is wrong!
      print( "I am {0}".format(my_type) )

Test[int]().hello() # should print "I am int"

On here, it is suggested the type arg would be present in in the args field of the type. And indeed,

print( str( Test[int].__args__ ) )

would print (<class 'int'>,). However, I can't seem to access this from within the instance directly, e.g. substituting

      my_type = self.__class__.__args__ # this is also wrong (None)

doesn't seem to to the trick.

Thanks

Answer 1

There is no supported API for this. Under limited circumstances, if you're willing to mess around with undocumented implementation details, you can sometimes do it, but it's not reliable at all.

---

First, mypy doesn't require you to provide type arguments when assigning to a generically-typed variable. You can do things like x: Test[int] = Test() and neither Python nor mypy will complain. mypy infers the type arguments, but Test is used at runtime instead of Test[int]. Since explicit type arguments are awkward to write and carry a performance penalty, lots of code only uses type arguments in the annotations, not at runtime.

There's no way to recover type arguments at runtime that were never provided at runtime.

---

When type arguments are provided at runtime, the implementation does currently try to preserve this information, but only in a completely undocumented internal attribute that is subject to change without notice, and even this attribute might not be present. Specifically, when you call

Test[int]()

, the class of the new object is Test rather than Test[int], but the typing implementation attempts to set

obj.__orig_class__ = Test[int]

on the new object. If it cannot set __orig_class__ (for example, if Test uses __slots__), then it catches the AttributeError and gives up.

__orig_class__ was introduced in Python 3.5.3; it is not present on 3.5.2 and lower. Nothing in typing makes any actual use of __orig_class__.

The timing of the __orig_class__ assignment varies by Python version, but currently, it's set after normal object construction has already finished. You will not be able to inspect __orig_class__ during __init__ or __new__.

These implementation details are current as of CPython 3.8.2.

---

__orig_class__ is an implementation detail, but at least on Python 3.8, you don't have to access any additional implementation details to get the type arguments. Python 3.8 introduced typing.get_args, which returns a tuple of the type arguments of a typing type, or () for an invalid argument. (Yes, there was really no public API for that all the way from Python 3.5 until 3.8.)

For example,

typing.get_args(Test[int]().__orig_class__) == (int,)

If __orig_class__ is present and you're willing to access it, then __orig_class__ and get_args together provide what you're looking for.