Unlock Python’s vars(): Retrieve Object Attributes and Values Easily

Overview

The vars() built‑in returns a dictionary containing an object’s attribute names and their corresponding values. When called without an argument it behaves like locals(), exposing the current local symbol table.

Syntax

vars([object])

Parameters

object – Any Python object (module, class, class instance, or any object that defines a __dict__ attribute).

Return Value

A dict mapping attribute names to their values. If no argument is supplied, the dictionary represents the current scope’s local variables.

Usage Examples

1. No argument – same as locals()

Inside a function, calling vars() returns all local variables:

def demo():
    a = 10
    b = 'text'
    print(vars())
# Output: {'a': 10, 'b': 'text'}

2. With an argument – inspect any object

You can pass a module, class, instance, or any object that has a __dict__ attribute:

# Module example
import math
print(vars(math))

# Class example
class MyClass:
    x = 5
    def __init__(self, y):
        self.y = y

obj = MyClass(10)
print(vars(obj))

The function will output a dictionary of the provided object’s attributes and their current values.

Example Output

The following image shows the result of vars() when called on a simple class instance: