How to create a docstring for a module?

[Dr. Phillip M. Feldman]

Steven D'Aprano-7 wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:55:50 +0100, Andreas Waldenburger wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, 5 Dec 2009 23:04:42 -0800 (PST) "Dr. Phillip M. Feldman"
>> <pfeldman at verizon.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> If I create a module xyz.py with a docstring """xyz does everything you
>>> could possibly want.""" at the top, the command ?xyz issued at the
>>> IPython prompt does not display this docstring.  What am I doing wrong?
>> 
>> Stab in the dark: You have imported the module first, right?
>> 
>> Also: Never, EVER, ask a question like this on any technical forum
>> without posting your code (or rather: a minimal version of it that still
>> exhibits the problem). That way, people can help you directly instead of
>> taking wild guesses at what your problem might be.
> 
> In fairness, Phillip's description of the problem is pretty straight-
> forward: he has a module xyz.py with a docstring. The minimal version of 
> the code is no code at all, just a docstring:
> 
> """xyz does everything you could possibly want."""
> 
> His problem isn't an error when running the code, but an error with 
> IPython's command ?xyz.
> 
> What he didn't say is what IPython prints instead of the expected 
> docstring. Over to you Phillip, don't just tell us what IPython doesn't 
> do, tell us what it does do.
> 
> My guesses are:
> 
> * He hasn't imported the module, so he gets an error of some sort.
> 
> * He hasn't actually defined a docstring. Docstrings have to be string 
> literals, you can't do this:
> 
> """%s does everything you could possibly want.""" % "xyz"
> 
> Nor can you have anything except comments and whitespace between the top 
> of the module and the string.
> 
> * He has another module called xyz which is shadowing the module he 
> expects, and so he sees that module's docstring instead.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Steven
> -- 
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> 
> 

My bad.  This is working for me now.  I could swear that I imported the
module previously, but perhaps I didn't .  My apologies, and thanks for the
help!

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