how to get derived class name from base class

I don't know if this is what you want, and the way you'd like it implemented, but here's a try:

>>> class Person(object):    def _type(self):        return self.__class__.__name__>>> p = Person()>>> p._type()'Person'>>> class Manager(Person):    pass>>> m = Manager()>>> m._type()'Manager'>>> 

Pros: only one definition of the _type method.

You can use x.__class__.__name__ to retrieve the class name as a string, e.g.

class Person:    passclass Manager(Person):    passclass Employee(Person):    passdef get_class_name(instance):    return instance.__class__.__name__>>> m = Manager()>>> print get_class_name(m)Manager>>> print get_class_name(Employee())Employee

Or, you could use isinstance to check for different types:

>>> print isinstance(m, Person)True>>> print isinstance(m, Manager)True>>> print isinstance(m, Employee)False

So you could do something like this:

def handle_person(person):    if isinstance(person, Manager):        person.read_paper()     # method of Manager class only    elif isinstance(person, Employee):        person.work_hard()      # method of Employee class only    elif isinstance(person, Person):        person.blah()           # method of the base class    else:        print "Not a person"

Python objects provide a __class__ attribute which stores the type used to make that object. This in turns provides a __name__ attribute which can be used to get the name of the type as a string. So, in the simple case:

class A(object):    passclass B(A):    passb = B()print b.__class__.__name__

Would give:

'B'

So, if I follow your question correctly you would do:

m = Manager()print m.__class__.__name__'Manager'