is there a way to check if a param contains a class or a class instance?

Question

I want the wrapper my_function to be able to receive either a class or class instance, instead of writing two different functions:

>>> from module import MyClass

>>> my_function(MyClass)

True

>>> cls_inst = MyClass()

>>> my_function(cls_inst)

True

the problem is that I don't know in advance which type of classes or class instances I am going to receive. So I can't, for example, use functions like isinstance...

How can I type check if a param contains a class or a class instance, in a generic way?

Any idea?

Answer 1

Use the type() buitlin function.

E.g.:

import avahi
print type(avahi)

<type 'module'>

Answer 2

>>> class A: pass

>>> isinstance(A, type)
True
>>> isinstance(A(), type)
False

Answer 3

import types

def myfun(maybe_class):
    if type(maybe_class) == types.ClassType:
        print "It's a class."
    else:
        print "It's an instance."