99 – Readable object names

Functions and classes have a dunder attribute __name__ that is a string with the readable/user-defined name of that object:

class Example:
    pass

print(Example.__name__)  # Example
print(int.__name__)  # int

def foo():
    pass

print(foo.__name__)  # foo
print(print.__name__)  # print

This is useful, for example, when defining a class’s __repr__:

class Point:
    def __init__(self, x):
        self.x = x
        
    def __repr__(self):
        return f"{type(self).__name__}({self.x})"

By using the dunder attribute __name__, the implementation of __repr__ will remain correct if the name of the class changes and it is also more likely to stay correct if Point is subclassed.