1d. Checking Instance Types

Question 1

How do you check what type an object is in Python?

Answer 1

By using the type function and passing it the instance.

class=Book
object=book

solution=type(book)
output=

Question 2

How do you compare two objects to see whether they’re the same type?

Answer 2

By using the type function and comparing the value returned for two different instances.

class1=Book
class2=Newspaper
object1=book
object2=newspaper

solution=type(book) == type(newspaper)
output=False

Question 3

How do you check whether a given object is the instance of a given class?

Answer 3

By using the isinstance function.

class=Book
object=book

solution=isinstance(book, Book)
output=True

Question 4

What does isinstance return if the first parameter is an object and the second is a parent class to the class that the object is an instance of?

Answer 4

It returns true.

For example, in Python, every class ultimately inherits from the object class. So, if the second parameter passed into the isinstance method is the object class, no matter what the type of the first parameter is, it will return true.