How to Introspect a Describe "Object"

[ThomasLaxson]

Though the documentation refers to a "Describe object", it must be some sort of C class (apparently via the arcgisscripting.create function), instead of a Python class. The standard Python introspection methods don't turn up much information (see below).

If one wishes to summarize all the known info of a dataset, how might one dynamically identify which properties apply to the current instance--without writing a long series of if statements and/or going through all the potential properties?

For reference: given a variable named "desc" returned from a call to arcpy.Describe, here are the results of some inspection and introspection operations:

>>> type(desc)
<type 'geoprocessing describe data object'>

>>> dir(desc)
[]

>>> desc.__name__
'Describe Object'

>>> desc.__class__
Traceback (most recent call last):  
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: DescribeData: Method __class__ does not exist

>>> desc.__repr__
Traceback (most recent call last):  
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: DescribeData: Method __repr__ does not exist

>>> isinstance(desc, object)
True

>>> desc.__dict__
Traceback (most recent call last):  
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: DescribeData: Method __dict__ does not exist

>>> help(desc)
Help on geoprocessing describe data object object:
Describe Object = class geoprocessing describe data object(object)‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

>>> print(inspect.getmodule(desc))
None

>>> inspect.getclasstree(desc)
Traceback (most recent call last):  
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>  
 File "C:\Python27\ArcGISx6410.4\Lib\inspect.py", line 726, in getclasstree    
    for c in classes:
TypeError: 'geoprocessing describe data object' object is not iterable

>>> inspect.getmro(desc)
Traceback (most recent call last):  
 File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>  
 File "C:\Python27\ArcGISx6410.4\Lib\inspect.py", line 346, in getmro
    _searchbases(cls, result)
 File "C:\Python27\ArcGISx6410.4\Lib\inspect.py", line 337, in _searchbases
    for base in cls.__bases__:
AttributeError: DescribeData: Method __bases__ does not exist‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[DanPatterson_Retired]

addendum

examples:
     desc['areaFieldName']    # 'Shape_Area'
     desc['baseName']         # featureclass name
     desc['catalogPath']      # full path to the featureclass
     desc['datasetType']      # FeatureClass
        desc['dataType']         # 'FeatureClass'
     desc['extent']           # extent object
        desc['file']             # filename without path
     desc['featureType']      # 'Simple'
     desc['hasOID']           # True
     desc['hasM']             # False
     desc['hasZ']             # False
     desc['lengthFieldName']  # 'Shape_Length'
     desc['name']             # layer name, no path
     desc['OIDFieldName']     # 'OBJECTID'
     desc['path']             # full catalog path minus name
     desc['shapeFieldName']   # 'Shape'
     desc['shapeType']        # Polygon
     desc['spatialReference'] # spatial reference object
     
result = [(k, desc[k]) for k in desc.keys()]  # to get them all‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[DanPatterson_Retired]

If you are particularly interested in seeing what is going on behind the scenes, examine the __init__ trail and see what is being imported and how and where it takes you and what properties etc are revealed.  The lack of many 'pythonic' properties, I suspect, is intentional

import inspect
inspect.getabsfile(arcpy)  or inspect.getfile(arcpy) 
    'c:\\arcpro\\resources\\arcpy\\arcpy\\__init__.py'
# examine __init__ and its children‍‍‍‍