Calling a function of a module by using its name (a string)?

Question

What is the best way to go about calling a function given a string with the function's name in a Python program. For example, let's say that I have a module `foo`, and I have a string whose content is `"bar"`. What is the best way to call `foo.bar()`?I need to get the return value of the function, which is why I don't just use `eval`. I figured out how to do it by using `eval` to define a temp function that returns the result of that function call, but I'm hoping that there is a more elegant way to do this.

Answer 1

Use .__dict__!

result = foo.__dict__['bar'](input)

print(result)

.__dict__ returns a dictionary mapping the names for a module's attributes to their corresponding functions/values. Foo.__dict__ might return something like:

>>> foo.__dict__

{'bar':<attr 1>,

'baz':<attr 2>,

'blerg':<function 1>,

'asdf':<function 2>}

By iterating over the keys in this dictionary, you can select which functions you want to call pretty arbitrarily!