### Navigation

- index
- modules |
- next |
- previous |
- Python v3.1.2 documentation »
- The Python Standard Library »
- 8. Data Types »

# 8.10. `types` — Names for built-in types

This module defines names for some object types that are used by the standard Python interpreter, but not exposed as builtins like `int` or `str` are. Also, it does not include some of the types that arise transparently during processing such as the `listiterator` type.

Typical use is for `isinstance()` or `issubclass()` checks.

The module defines the following names:

`types.``FunctionType`
`types.``LambdaType`
  The type of user-defined functions and functions created by `lambda` expressions.

`types.``GeneratorType`
  The type of generator-iterator objects, produced by calling a generator function.

`types.``CodeType`

  The type for code objects such as returned by `compile()`.

`types.``MethodType`
  The type of methods of user-defined class instances.

`types.``BuiltinFunctionType`
`types.``BuiltinMethodType`
  The type of built-in functions like `len()` or `sys.exit()`, and methods of built-in classes. (Here, the term “built-in” means “written in C”.)

`types.``ModuleType`
  The type of modules.

`types.``TracebackType`
  The type of traceback objects such as found in `sys.exc_info()[2]`.

`types.``FrameType`
  The type of frame objects such as found in `tb.tb_frame` if `tb` is a traceback object.

`types.``GetSetDescriptorType`
  The type of objects defined in extension modules with `PyGetSetDef`, such as `FrameType.f_locals` or `array.array.typecode`. This type is used as descriptor for object attributes; it has the same purpose as the `property` type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

`types.``MemberDescriptorType`

  The type of objects defined in extension modules with `PyMemberDef`, such as `datetime.timedelta.days`. This type is used as descriptor for simple C data members which use standard conversion functions; it has the same purpose as the `property` type, but for classes defined in extension modules.

  CPython implementation detail: In other implementations of Python, this type may be identical to `GetSetDescriptorType`.

### Navigation

- index
- modules |
- next |
- previous |
- Python v3.1.2 documentation »
- The Python Standard Library »
- 8. Data Types »