I like using locate
, which works on built-in types:
>>> from pydoc import locate
>>> locate('int')
<type 'int'>
>>> t = locate('int')
>>> t('1')
1
…as well as anything it can find in the path:
>>> locate('datetime.date')
<type 'datetime.date'>
>>> d = locate('datetime.date')
>>> d(2015, 4, 23)
datetime.date(2015, 4, 23)
…including your custom types:
>>> locate('mypackage.model.base.BaseModel')
<class 'mypackage.model.base.BaseModel'>
>>> m = locate('mypackage.model.base.BaseModel')
>>> m()
<mypackage.model.base.BaseModel object at 0x1099f6c10>