How to distinguish method and attribute in python by name

Question

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to distinguish a method and an attribute from a name without adding parentheses.

For instance:
there is a keys() and text method in the xml.etree.ElementTree.Element class.

text : a text attribute can be used to store additional data associated with an element.

keys() : returns the attribute names of the elements in a list.

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Are there some basic rules / conventions to make a text attribute but a keys() method?

If I create a text() method and keys attribute. It still seems OK.

Answer 1

The only real difference is that one is called and the other is not, so you can use the callable() built-in function with the actual object (not a string with its name) to determine if it can be called.

In your case:

 >>> from xml.etree import ElementTree >>> elt = ElementTree.Element("") >>> callable(elt.keys) True >>> callable(elt.text) False 

Answer 2

If you are talking about naming conventions, then in Python both are usually lowercase.

If you talk about how to tell each other,

 from collections import Callable, Container if isinstance(attribute, Callable): return attribute() elif isinstance(attribute, str): return attribute elif isinstance(attribute, Container): return 'Yes' if 'Blah' in attribute else: return str(attribute) 

is how you check if a variable is specified for a particular type of object