Currently when working with interactive sessions using the dir() or dir(module) built in is incredibly useful for exploring what functionality is available in a module. (Especially the regrettable libraries or modules that add really valuable functionality but have no or limited docstrings). However I often find that when a module adds a lot of functions I need to filter those entries to be able to find the one that I need, e.g.:

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import mpmath dir(mpmath) # This produces 390+ lines of output but for name in dir(mpmath): ... if 'sin' in name: ... print(name) # gives me a mere 13 to consider as candidates

What I would really like to do is:

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dir(mpmath.*sin*)

However, I know that the interpreter will hit problems with one or more operators being embedded in the module name. What I would like to suggest is extending the dir built-in to allow an optional filter parameter that takes fnmatch type wild card as an optional filter. Then I could use:

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dir(mpmath, "*sin*")

To narrow down the candidates. Ideally, this could have a recursive variant that would also include listing, (and filtering), any sub-packages. -- Steve (Gadget) Barnes Any opinions in this message are my personal opinions and do not reflect those of my employer. --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com