I am very new to Python, and trying to figure out how to create an object that has values that are accessible either by attribute name, or by index. For example, the way os.stat() returns a stat_result or pwd.getpwnam() returns a struct_passwd.

In trying to figure it out, I've only come across C implementations of the above types. Nothing specifically in Python. What is the Python native way to create this kind of object?

I apologize if this has been widely covered already. In searching for an answer, I must be missing some fundamental concept that is excluding me from finding an answer.

Python 2.6 introduced collections.namedtuple to make this easy. With older Python versions you can use the named tuple recipe.

Quoting directly from the docs:

>>> Point = namedtuple('Point', 'x y')
>>> p = Point(11, y=22)     # instantiate with positional or keyword arguments
>>> p[0] + p[1]             # indexable like the plain tuple (11, 22)
33
>>> x, y = p                # unpack like a regular tuple
>>> x, y
(11, 22)
>>> p.x + p.y               # fields also accessible by name
33
>>> p                       # readable __repr__ with a name=value style
Point(x=11, y=22)