isinstance() Function in Python

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Python isinstance() Function

The isinstance() function in Python is used to check if an object is an instance of a particular class or any of its subclasses. It returns True if the object is an instance of the specified class, and False otherwise.

The syntax for the isinstance() function is as follows:

isinstance(object, classinfo)

Here, object is the object that you want to check, and classinfo can be either a class or a tuple of classes. If object is an instance of any of the classes specified in classinfo, the function returns True. Otherwise, it returns False.

Here's an example to illustrate the usage of isinstance():

class Animal:
    pass

class Dog(Animal):
    pass

class Cat(Animal):
    pass

dog = Dog()
cat = Cat()

print(isinstance(dog, Animal))  # True
print(isinstance(cat, Animal))  # True
print(isinstance(dog, Dog))     # True
print(isinstance(cat, Dog))     # False
print(isinstance(dog, (Dog, Cat)))  # True
print(isinstance(cat, (Dog, Cat)))  # True

In the above example, we define a base class Animal and two subclasses Dog and Cat. We create instances of Dog and Cat classes, and then we use isinstance() to check their types. The output shows whether the objects are instances of the specified classes or not.

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