python - Why use setattr() and getattr() built-ins?

Question

From reading the docs, I understand exactly what getattr() and setattr() do. But it also says explicitly that getattr(x, 'foobar') is equivalent to x.foobar and setattr(x, 'foobar', 123) is equivalent to x.foobar = 123.

So why would I use them?

Answer 1

Because you can use a dynamic variable too:

somevar = 'foo'
getattr(x, somevar)

You can't do that with regular attribute access syntax.

Note that getattr() also takes an optional default value, to be returned if the attribute is missing:

>>> x = object()
>>> getattr(x, 'foo')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'object' object has no attribute 'foo'
>>> getattr(x, 'foo', 42)
42

Using getattr() you can pull the attribute name from something else, not a literal:

for attrname in dir(x):
    print('x.{} = {!r}'.format(attrname, getattr(x, attrname))

or you can use setattr() to set dynamic attributes:

for i, value in enumerate(dynamic_values):
    setattr(i, 'attribute{}'.format(i), value)