object

Properties

>>> dir(object)
['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dir__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__']

Definition

object is the base class of all new-style classes in Python. Every class ultimately inherits from object, which provides default implementations for core behaviors like representation, equality, hashing, and attribute access.

>>> class X: pass
>>> isinstance(X(), object)
True

Subclassing object

Explicitly inheriting from object is optional in Python 3, but the behaviors come from it regardless.

class Point(object):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y

Attribute access hooks

• __getattribute__ — intercepts all attribute access.
• __setattr__ / __delattr__ — customize assignment/deletion.

Use with care to avoid infinite recursion; delegate to super().__getattribute__ as needed.

Descriptor protocol

Objects implementing __get__, __set__, or __delete__ act as descriptors (used by properties, methods, etc.).

Dunder methods

Dunder Method	Operation	Example (normal syntax)	Example (dunder call)
__init__	Initialize	object()	object().__init__()
__str__	String representation	str(object())	object().__str__()
__repr__	Developer representation	repr(object())	object().__repr__()
__eq__	Equality	object() == object()	object().__eq__(object())
__hash__	Hash value	hash(object())	object().__hash__()
__getattribute__	Attribute lookup	obj.attr	obj.__getattribute__('attr')
__setattr__	Attribute set	obj.attr = 1	obj.__setattr__('attr',1)
__delattr__	Attribute delete	del obj.attr	obj.__delattr__('attr')

Dunder Method	Operation	Example (normal syntax)	Example (dunder call)
__get__	Access attribute	obj.x	prop.__get__(obj, type(obj))
__set__	Assign value	obj.x = 5	prop.__set__(obj, 5)
__delete__	Delete value	del obj.x	prop.__delete__(obj)