How to use pprint to print an object using the built-in __str__(self) method?

Question

I have a Python script which processes a .txt file which contains report usage information. I\'d like to find a way to cleanly print the attributes of an object using pprint\'s

Answer 1

Dan's solution is just wrong, and Ismail's in incomplete.

1. __str__() is not called, __repr__() is called.
2. __repr__() should return a string, as pformat does.
3. print normally indents only 1 character and tries to save lines. If you are trying to figure out structure, set the width low and indent high.

Here is an example

class S:
    def __repr__(self):
        from pprint import pformat
        return pformat(vars(self), indent=4, width=1)

a = S()
a.b = 'bee'
a.c = {'cats': ['blacky', 'tiger'], 'dogs': ['rex', 'king'] }
a.d = S()
a.d.more_c = a.c

print(a)

This prints

{   'b': 'bee',
    'c': {   'cats': [   'blacky',
                         'tiger'],
             'dogs': [   'rex',
                         'king']},
    'd': {   'more_c': {   'cats': [   'blacky',
                               'tiger'],
                  'dogs': [   'rex',
                              'king']}}}

Which is not perfect, but passable.