How to print instances of a class using print()?

Question

I am learning the ropes in Python. When I try to print an object of class Foobar using the print() function, I ge

Answer 1

As Chris Lutz mentioned, this is defined by the __repr__ method in your class.

From the documentation of repr():

For many types, this function makes an attempt to return a string that would yield an object with the same value when passed to eval(), otherwise the representation is a string enclosed in angle brackets that contains the name of the type of the object together with additional information often including the name and address of the object. A class can control what this function returns for its instances by defining a __repr__() method.

Given the following class Test:

class Test:
    def __init__(self, a, b):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b

    def __repr__(self):
        return "" % (self.a, self.b)

    def __str__(self):
        return "From str method of Test: a is %s, b is %s" % (self.a, self.b)

..it will act the following way in the Python shell:

>>> t = Test(123, 456)
>>> t

>>> print repr(t)

>>> print(t)
From str method of Test: a is 123, b is 456
>>> print(str(t))
From str method of Test: a is 123, b is 456

If no __str__ method is defined, print(t) (or print(str(t))) will use the result of __repr__ instead

If no __repr__ method is defined then the default is used, which is pretty much equivalent to..

def __repr__(self):
    return "<%s instance at %s>" % (self.__class__.__name__, id(self))