Is there a method (similar to str() method in R) that can print the data structure in python?

[John Nagle]

Zero Piraeus wrote:
> :
> 
> 2009/9/27 Peng Yu <pengyu.ut at gmail.com>:
>>>> But I want an even simpler solution. I don't want the user to define
>>>> __pretty__. Is there a tool that can automatically print the content
>>>> of an object without defining such a member function like __pretty__.
> 
> Not tested (much):
> 
> from pprint import pprint
> 
> def examine(obj, limit=3):
>     truncated = dict()
>     for attr_name in dir(obj):
>         if attr_name.startswith(("__", "_%s__" % obj.__class__.__name__)):
>             continue # don't include "private" or special attributes
>         attr = getattr(obj, attr_name)
>         if callable(attr):
>             continue # don't include methods
>         if hasattr(attr, "__getitem__") and not isinstance(attr, str):
>             truncated[attr_name] = attr[:limit]
>         else:
>             truncated[attr_name] = attr
>     pprint(truncated)
> 
> It truncates sequences silently, which may or may not be what you want.
> 
>  -[]z.

    Ah, introspection.  Is that a defined feature of Python or an implementation
quirk of CPython?

				John Nagle