getattr (snip of Dive into Python)

gistfile1.txt

>>> li = ["Larry", "Curly"]                           
>>> li.pop                                          (1)
<built−in method pop of list object at 010DF884> 
>>> getattr(li, "pop")                              (2)
<built−in method pop of list object at 010DF884> 
>>> getattr(li, "append")("Moe")                    (3)
>>> li 
["Larry", "Curly", "Moe"] 

1. This gets a reference to the pop method of the list. Note that this is not 
calling the pop method; that would be li.pop(). This is the method itself.

2. This also returns a reference to the pop method, but this time, the method name
is specified as a string argument to the getattr function. getattr is an incredibly 
useful built−in function that returns any attribute of any object. In this case, the 
object is a list, and the attribute is the pop method.

3. In case it hasn't sunk in just how incredibly useful this is, try this: the 
return value of getattr is the method, which you can then call just as if you had 
said li.append("Moe") directly. But you didn't call the function directly; you 
specified the function name as a string instead.