What are Python function attributes?

Python is made up of objects but can also be used in other ways. Similarly, functions are also made up of objects, since they are objects they have attributes like identifier, title, inputs, outputs, etc.

The value of an attribute cannot be changed once it has been set. To set the value of an attribute we use a function setattr and to know what value has been set as the attribute we use a function getattr.

To access the attributes of a function we use the ?.? Operator. Some of the attributes have a special functionality such that they can be implemented directly at runtime instead of compile time. The function ?func_dict? can be used to know the attributes present in the function and their values.

Example 1

In the below program, we define an attribute directly in the function, and coming to another attribute, we are explicitly setting that attribute.

def function():
   function.a = 14
   print(function.a)
	
function()
function.name = "bar"
print(function.__dict__)

Output

The output for the above python program is obtained as ?

14
{'a': 14, 'name': 'bar'}

Example 2

In the below program, we are defining an empty function and then adding attributes to that function manually. Then we are retrieving that attributes

def city():
   pass
setattr(city,'Name','Hyderabad')
setattr(city,'State','Telangana')

print(getattr(city, 'Name'))
print(city.Name)
print(city.State)

Output

The output of the following program is

Hyderabad
Hyderabad
Telangana

Example 3

In this program we defined a function and returned the values that were set

def employee(employee_id, employee_name, wage):
   return f'Employee ID: {employee_id}\nEmployee Name: {employee_name}\nWage: {wage}'
print(employee('E69', 'Janardhan', 25000))

Output

The output of the following program is

Employee ID: E69
Employee Name: Janardhan
Wage: 25000

Example 4

Let us see another example for this ?

def foo():
   pass
setattr(foo, 'age', 23 )
setattr(foo, 'name', 'John Doe' )

print(getattr(foo, 'age'))
foo.gender ='male'

print(foo.gender)
print(foo.name)
print(foo.age)

Output

The output of the following program is

23
male
John Doe
23