Using __repr__ or __str__ for own printable class?

[Roy Smith]

Mads Orbesen Troest <mads at troest.NEVERMORE.dk> wrote:
> If I create a class which I want to be able to print like this ...
> 	tst = myclass()
> 	exp = r"test: %(intepol)s";
> 	print exp % { 'intepol':tst }
> 
> ... it seems I have two choices, either of which appear to work. I can 
> overload the __str__ or the __repr__ method.

Most likely, what you want to do is define a __str__ method for your 
class.

The basic concept is that __str__ produces a string the is easy for 
humans to read, and __repr__ produces a string which the python parser 
can read and regenerate the original object.  For complex data 
structures, __repr__ is usually of limited value.