Rebinding stdout

[Ron Garret]

In article <mailman.67.1104698622.22381.python-list at python.org>,
 Mark McEahern <marklists at mceahern.com> wrote:

> Ron Garret wrote:
> 
> > But this topic does bring up a legitimate question: I have a bunch of 
> > code that generates HTML using PRINT statements.  I need to convert 
> > all this code to return strings rather than actually printing them (so 
> > I can use the results to populate templates).  In Lisp I could do this:
> >
> > (with-output-to-string (s)
> >  (let ( (*standard-output* s) )
> >    (call-html-generating-code)
> >    s))
> >
> > Is there an equivalent Python trick to capture a function call's 
> > output as a string?
> >  
> >
> Just to make sure I understand, I'm going to restate your question:
> 
> Is there a way to capture stdout?
> 
> The answer:  Sure, replace it with something file-like:
> 
>  >>> import sys, StringIO
>  >>> default = sys.stdout
>  >>> writer = StringIO.StringIO()
>  >>> sys.stdout = writer
>  >>> print 'Whatever'
>  >>> sys.stdout = default
>  >>> print writer.getvalue()
> Whatever
> 
>  >>>
> 
> // m

That's exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks!

rg