dir(): Get Directory Function
dir | |
|---|---|
| Language | Python |
| Category | Function |
| Part Of | Built In Functions |
| Named Arguments Count | 0 |
| Unnamed Arguments Count | 1 |
| Official Documentation | dir Function |
1 Description
The Python dir function is used to obtain a list of defined
names in the current scope, or a list of defined names for the object passed to
the dir function.
2 Prototypes
2.1 Zero Parameter Prototype
Below is the zero parameter prototype for the dir function. When you call the dir function
with no parameter it will return a list of defined names in the local scope.
dir()2.2 Single Parameter Prototype
Below is the single parameter prototype for the dir function. When you call the dir function
and pass an object to it you will receive as output a list of defined names for that object.
dir(object)3 Arguments
| dir Function Arguments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Type | Default Value | Category | Description |
objects |
any |
Unnamed argument(s) | The object which you would like to receive a list of defined names for. | |
4 Returns
| dir Function Returns | |
|---|---|
| Return Type | Explanation |
List |
The dir function will always a list-type object which contains zero or more strings. |
5 Examples
5.1 Print Local Scope Names
In the python file below we make a single call to the dir function with zero parameters. In this
situation the dir function will return a list of names which have been defined in the local scope.
That list is the passed to the print function which will output the contents of the
list to STDOUT.
#!/usr/bin/python3
print(dir())In the terminal below we can see all of the names which have been define in the local scope.
user-1@vm:~/Documents$ ./dir_example_1.py
['__annotations__', '__builtins__', '__cached__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__']
user-1@vm:~/Documents$
5.2 Print Module Names
In the python file below we import the module called os (which is a part of the standard library)
then in the main() function we make a single call to the dir function and this time we pass it
the os module. We will receive from the dir function a list which contains all of the names
which the os module defines.
#!/usr/bin/python3
import os
def main():
print(dir(os))
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
In the terminal below we can see a list of all the names defined by the os module.
user-1@vm:~/Documents$ ./dir_example_2.py
['CLD_CONTINUED', 'CLD_DUMPED', 'CLD_EXITED', 'CLD_KILLED', 'CLD_STOPPED', 'CLD_TRAPPED', 'DirEntry', 'EFD_CLOEXEC', 'EFD_NONBLOCK', 'EFD_SEMAPHORE', 'EX_CANTCREAT', 'EX_CONFIG', 'EX_DATAERR', 'EX_IOERR', 'EX_NOHOST', 'EX_NOINPUT', 'EX_NOPERM', 'EX_NOUSER', 'EX_OK', 'EX_OSERR', 'EX_OSFILE', 'EX_PROTOCOL', 'EX_SOFTWARE', 'EX_TEMPFAIL', 'EX_UNAVAILABLE', 'EX_USAGE', 'F_LOCK', 'F_OK', 'F_TEST', 'F_TLOCK', 'F_ULOCK', 'GRND_NONBLOCK', 'GRND_RANDOM', 'GenericAlias', 'MFD_ALLOW_SEALING', 'MFD_CLOEXEC', 'MFD_HUGETLB', 'MFD_HUGE_16GB', 'MFD_HUGE_16MB', 'MFD_HUGE_1GB', 'MFD_HUGE_1MB', 'MFD_HUGE_256MB', 'MFD_HUGE_2GB', 'MFD_HUGE_2MB', 'MFD_HUGE_32MB', 'MFD_HUGE_512KB', 'MFD_HUGE_512MB', 'MFD_HUGE_64KB', 'MFD_HUGE_8MB', 'MFD_HUGE_MASK', 'MFD_HUGE_SHIFT', 'Mapping', 'MutableMapping', 'NGROUPS_MAX', 'O_ACCMODE', 'O_APPEND', 'O_ASYNC', 'O_CLOEXEC', 'O_CREAT', 'O_DIRECT', 'O_DIRECTORY', 'O_DSYNC', 'O_EXCL', 'O_FSYNC', 'O_LARGEFILE', 'O_NDELAY', 'O_NOATIME', 'O_NOCTTY', 'O_NOFOLLOW', 'O_NONBLOCK', 'O_PATH', 'O_RDONLY', 'O_RDWR', 'O_RSYNC', 'O_SYNC', 'O_TMPFILE', 'O_TRUNC', 'O_WRONLY', 'POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED', 'POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE', 'POSIX_FADV_NORMAL', 'POSIX_FADV_RANDOM', 'POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL', 'POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED', 'POSIX_SPAWN_CLOSE', 'POSIX_SPAWN_DUP2', 'POSIX_SPAWN_OPEN', 'PRIO_PGRP', 'PRIO_PROCESS', 'PRIO_USER', 'P_ALL', 'P_NOWAIT', 'P_NOWAITO', 'P_PGID', 'P_PID', 'P_PIDFD', 'P_WAIT', 'PathLike', 'RTLD_DEEPBIND', 'RTLD_GLOBAL', 'RTLD_LAZY', 'RTLD_LOCAL', 'RTLD_NODELETE', 'RTLD_NOLOAD', 'RTLD_NOW', 'RWF_APPEND', 'RWF_DSYNC', 'RWF_HIPRI', 'RWF_NOWAIT', 'RWF_SYNC', 'R_OK', 'SCHED_BATCH', 'SCHED_FIFO', 'SCHED_IDLE', 'SCHED_OTHER', 'SCHED_RESET_ON_FORK', 'SCHED_RR', 'SEEK_CUR', 'SEEK_DATA', 'SEEK_END', 'SEEK_HOLE', 'SEEK_SET', 'SPLICE_F_MORE', 'SPLICE_F_MOVE', 'SPLICE_F_NONBLOCK', 'ST_APPEND', 'ST_MANDLOCK', 'ST_NOATIME', 'ST_NODEV', 'ST_NODIRATIME', 'ST_NOEXEC', 'ST_NOSUID', 'ST_RDONLY', 'ST_RELATIME', 'ST_SYNCHRONOUS', 'ST_WRITE', 'TMP_MAX', 'WCONTINUED', 'WCOREDUMP', 'WEXITED', 'WEXITSTATUS', 'WIFCONTINUED', 'WIFEXITED', 'WIFSIGNALED', 'WIFSTOPPED', 'WNOHANG', 'WNOWAIT', 'WSTOPPED', 'WSTOPSIG', 'WTERMSIG', 'WUNTRACED', 'W_OK', 'XATTR_CREATE', 'XATTR_REPLACE', 'XATTR_SIZE_MAX', 'X_OK', '_Environ', '__all__', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', '_check_methods', '_execvpe', '_exists', '_exit', '_fspath', '_fwalk', '_get_exports_list', '_spawnvef', '_walk', '_wrap_close', 'abc', 'abort', 'access', 'altsep', 'chdir', 'chmod', 'chown', 'chroot', 'close', 'closerange', 'confstr', 'confstr_names', 'copy_file_range', 'cpu_count', 'ctermid', 'curdir', 'defpath', 'device_encoding', 'devnull', 'dup', 'dup2', 'environ', 'environb', 'error', 'eventfd', 'eventfd_read', 'eventfd_write', 'execl', 'execle', 'execlp', 'execlpe', 'execv', 'execve', 'execvp', 'execvpe', 'extsep', 'fchdir', 'fchmod', 'fchown', 'fdatasync', 'fdopen', 'fork', 'forkpty', 'fpathconf', 'fsdecode', 'fsencode', 'fspath', 'fstat', 'fstatvfs', 'fsync', 'ftruncate', 'fwalk', 'get_blocking', 'get_exec_path', 'get_inheritable', 'get_terminal_size', 'getcwd', 'getcwdb', 'getegid', 'getenv', 'getenvb', 'geteuid', 'getgid', 'getgrouplist', 'getgroups', 'getloadavg', 'getlogin', 'getpgid', 'getpgrp', 'getpid', 'getppid', 'getpriority', 'getrandom', 'getresgid', 'getresuid', 'getsid', 'getuid', 'getxattr', 'initgroups', 'isatty', 'kill', 'killpg', 'lchown', 'linesep', 'link', 'listdir', 'listxattr', 'lockf', 'login_tty', 'lseek', 'lstat', 'major', 'makedev', 'makedirs', 'memfd_create', 'minor', 'mkdir', 'mkfifo', 'mknod', 'name', 'nice', 'open', 'openpty', 'pardir', 'path', 'pathconf', 'pathconf_names', 'pathsep', 'pidfd_open', 'pipe', 'pipe2', 'popen', 'posix_fadvise', 'posix_fallocate', 'posix_spawn', 'posix_spawnp', 'pread', 'preadv', 'putenv', 'pwrite', 'pwritev', 'read', 'readlink', 'readv', 'register_at_fork', 'remove', 'removedirs', 'removexattr', 'rename', 'renames', 'replace', 'rmdir', 'scandir', 'sched_get_priority_max', 'sched_get_priority_min', 'sched_getaffinity', 'sched_getparam', 'sched_getscheduler', 'sched_param', 'sched_rr_get_interval', 'sched_setaffinity', 'sched_setparam', 'sched_setscheduler', 'sched_yield', 'sendfile', 'sep', 'set_blocking', 'set_inheritable', 'setegid', 'seteuid', 'setgid', 'setgroups', 'setpgid', 'setpgrp', 'setpriority', 'setregid', 'setresgid', 'setresuid', 'setreuid', 'setsid', 'setuid', 'setxattr', 'spawnl', 'spawnle', 'spawnlp', 'spawnlpe', 'spawnv', 'spawnve', 'spawnvp', 'spawnvpe', 'splice', 'st', 'stat', 'stat_result', 'statvfs', 'statvfs_result', 'strerror', 'supports_bytes_environ', 'supports_dir_fd', 'supports_effective_ids', 'supports_fd', 'supports_follow_symlinks', 'symlink', 'sync', 'sys', 'sysconf', 'sysconf_names', 'system', 'tcgetpgrp', 'tcsetpgrp', 'terminal_size', 'times', 'times_result', 'truncate', 'ttyname', 'umask', 'uname', 'uname_result', 'unlink', 'unsetenv', 'urandom', 'utime', 'wait', 'wait3', 'wait4', 'waitid', 'waitid_result', 'waitpid', 'waitstatus_to_exitcode', 'walk', 'write', 'writev']
user-1@vm:~/Documents$
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