Python super class reflection

C.__bases__ is an array of the super classes, so you could implement your hypothetical function like so:

def magicGetSuperClasses(cls):  return cls.__bases__

But I imagine it would be easier to just reference cls.__bases__ directly in most cases.

@John: Your snippet doesn't work -- you are returning the class of the base classes (which are also known as metaclasses). You really just want cls.__bases__:

class A: passclass B: passclass C(A, B): passc = C() # Instanceassert C.__bases__ == (A, B) # Worksassert c.__class__.__bases__ == (A, B) # Worksdef magicGetSuperClasses(clz):  return tuple([base.__class__ for base in clz.__bases__])assert magicGetSuperClasses(C) == (A, B) # Fails

Also, if you're using Python 2.4+ you can use generator expressions instead of creating a list (via []), then turning it into a tuple (via tuple). For example:

def get_base_metaclasses(cls):    """Returns the metaclass of all the base classes of cls."""    return tuple(base.__class__ for base in clz.__bases__)

That's a somewhat confusing example, but genexps are generally easy and cool. :)

The inspect module was a good start, use the getmro function:

Return a tuple of class cls’s base classes, including cls, in method resolution order. No class appears more than once in this tuple. ...

>>> class A: pass>>> class B: pass>>> class C(A, B): pass>>> import inspect>>> inspect.getmro(C)[1:](<class __main__.A at 0x8c59f2c>, <class __main__.B at 0x8c59f5c>)

The first element of the returned tuple is C, you can just disregard it.