Get parent class name?

class A(object):
    def get_class(self):
        return self.__class__

class B(A):
    def __init__(self):
        A.__init__(self)

b = B()
print b.get_class()

This code will print <class '__main__.B'>.

How can I get the class name where the method has been defined (namely A)?

From the documentation: https://docs.python.org/2/reference/datamodel.html#the-standard-type-hierarchy

Class objects have a __name__ attribute. It might cleaner to introspect the base class(es) through the __bases__ attr of the derived class (if the code is to live in the derived class for example).

>>> class Base(object):
...     pass
...
>>> class Derived(Base):
...     def print_base(self):
...         for base in self.__class__.__bases__:
...             print base.__name__
...
>>> foo = Derived()
>>> foo.print_base()
Base

> inspect.getmro(cls) > > Return a tuple of class cls’s base classes, > including cls, in method resolution order. No class appears more than > once in this tuple. Note that the method resolution order depends on > cls’s type. Unless a very peculiar user-defined metatype is in use, > cls will be the first element of the tuple.

import inspect
inspect.getmro(B)

result will be:

(<class '__main__.B'>, <class '__main__.A'>, <type 'object'>)

First element is the class itself, second element is always first of the parents. After that things can get bit more complicated.

You could change

return self.__class__

return A().__class__

Since there is no other instance of A() available...