Functions and classes are created during the very execution you're trying to skip so there's no precise way to do what you want.
That said, you can parse the code without executing it, and that will give you some information about defined functions and classes. It will _not_ give you actual function objects; the only way to get those is to execute the code. It will also not catch anything created "on the fly"*, e.g. "exec 'def func(x): pass'" # example: def defined_functions(code_text): module_ast = parse(code_text) return [statement for statement in module_ast.node.nodes if isinstance(statement, ast.Function)] # read the module's source code test_string = """ def foo(x): pass def bar(y): pass """ # Which functions are defined in the test string? function_asts = defined_functions(test_string) print "Defined functions:", [f.name for f in function_asts] * - Okay, everything in Python happens on-the-fly. But you know what I mean. Footnote: Wow. The new, "improved" google groups 2 beta has totally annihilated my indentation. Sorry about that. Hopefully you can still figure it out. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
