IPython Documentation

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Warning

This documentation is for an old version of IPython. You can find docs for newer versions here.

Module: core.oinspect

Tools for inspecting Python objects.

Uses syntax highlighting for presenting the various information elements.

Similar in spirit to the inspect module, but all calls take a name argument to reference the name under which an object is being read.

1 Class

class IPython.core.oinspect.Inspector(color_table={'': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a128>, 'LightBG': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a098>, 'NoColor': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a128>, 'Linux': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a320>}, code_color_table={'': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10513c830>, u'LightBG': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10514b758>, u'NoColor': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10513c830>, u'Linux': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10514b710>}, scheme='NoColor', str_detail_level=0)
__init__(color_table={'': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a128>, 'LightBG': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a098>, 'NoColor': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a128>, 'Linux': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10518a320>}, code_color_table={'': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10513c830>, u'LightBG': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10514b758>, u'NoColor': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10513c830>, u'Linux': <IPython.utils.coloransi.ColorScheme instance at 0x10514b710>}, scheme='NoColor', str_detail_level=0)
info(obj, oname='', formatter=None, info=None, detail_level=0)

Compute a dict with detailed information about an object.

Optional arguments:

  • oname: name of the variable pointing to the object.
  • formatter: special formatter for docstrings (see pdoc)
  • info: a structure with some information fields which may have been

precomputed already.

  • detail_level: if set to 1, more information is given.
noinfo(msg, oname)

Generic message when no information is found.

pdef(obj, oname='')

Print the call signature for any callable object.

If the object is a class, print the constructor information.

pdoc(obj, oname='', formatter=None)

Print the docstring for any object.

Optional: -formatter: a function to run the docstring through for specially formatted docstrings.

Examples

In [1]: class NoInit:
...: pass
In [2]: class NoDoc:
...: def __init__(self): ...: pass

In [3]: %pdoc NoDoc No documentation found for NoDoc

In [4]: %pdoc NoInit No documentation found for NoInit

In [5]: obj = NoInit()

In [6]: %pdoc obj No documentation found for obj

In [5]: obj2 = NoDoc()

In [6]: %pdoc obj2 No documentation found for obj2

pfile(obj, oname='')

Show the whole file where an object was defined.

pinfo(obj, oname='', formatter=None, info=None, detail_level=0)

Show detailed information about an object.

Optional arguments:

  • oname: name of the variable pointing to the object.
  • formatter: special formatter for docstrings (see pdoc)
  • info: a structure with some information fields which may have been

precomputed already.

  • detail_level: if set to 1, more information is given.
psearch(pattern, ns_table, ns_search=[], ignore_case=False, show_all=False)

Search namespaces with wildcards for objects.

Arguments:

  • pattern: string containing shell-like wildcards to use in namespace

searches and optionally a type specification to narrow the search to objects of that type.

  • ns_table: dict of name->namespaces for search.

Optional arguments:

  • ns_search: list of namespace names to include in search.
  • ignore_case(False): make the search case-insensitive.
  • show_all(False): show all names, including those starting with

underscores.

psource(obj, oname='')

Print the source code for an object.

10 Functions

IPython.core.oinspect.object_info(**kw)

Make an object info dict with all fields present.

IPython.core.oinspect.get_encoding(obj)

Get encoding for python source file defining obj

Returns None if obj is not defined in a sourcefile.

IPython.core.oinspect.getdoc(obj)

Stable wrapper around inspect.getdoc.

This can’t crash because of attribute problems.

It also attempts to call a getdoc() method on the given object. This allows objects which provide their docstrings via non-standard mechanisms (like Pyro proxies) to still be inspected by ipython’s ? system.

IPython.core.oinspect.getsource(obj, is_binary=False)

Wrapper around inspect.getsource.

This can be modified by other projects to provide customized source extraction.

Inputs:

  • obj: an object whose source code we will attempt to extract.

Optional inputs:

  • is_binary: whether the object is known to come from a binary source.

This implementation will skip returning any output for binary objects, but custom extractors may know how to meaningfully process them.

IPython.core.oinspect.getargspec(obj)

Get the names and default values of a function’s arguments.

A tuple of four things is returned: (args, varargs, varkw, defaults). ‘args’ is a list of the argument names (it may contain nested lists). ‘varargs’ and ‘varkw’ are the names of the * and ** arguments or None. ‘defaults’ is an n-tuple of the default values of the last n arguments.

Modified version of inspect.getargspec from the Python Standard Library.

IPython.core.oinspect.format_argspec(argspec)

Format argspect, convenience wrapper around inspect’s.

This takes a dict instead of ordered arguments and calls inspect.format_argspec with the arguments in the necessary order.

IPython.core.oinspect.call_tip(oinfo, format_call=True)

Extract call tip data from an oinfo dict.

Parameters:

oinfo : dict

format_call : bool, optional

If True, the call line is formatted and returned as a string. If not, a tuple of (name, argspec) is returned.

Returns:

call_info : None, str or (str, dict) tuple.

When format_call is True, the whole call information is formattted as a single string. Otherwise, the object’s name and its argspec dict are returned. If no call information is available, None is returned.

docstring : str or None

The most relevant docstring for calling purposes is returned, if available. The priority is: call docstring for callable instances, then constructor docstring for classes, then main object’s docstring otherwise (regular functions).

IPython.core.oinspect.safe_hasattr(obj, attr)

In recent versions of Python, hasattr() only catches AttributeError. This catches all errors.

IPython.core.oinspect.find_file(obj)

Find the absolute path to the file where an object was defined.

This is essentially a robust wrapper around inspect.getabsfile.

Returns None if no file can be found.

Parameters:

obj : any Python object

Returns:

fname : str

The absolute path to the file where the object was defined.

IPython.core.oinspect.find_source_lines(obj)

Find the line number in a file where an object was defined.

This is essentially a robust wrapper around inspect.getsourcelines.

Returns None if no file can be found.

Parameters:

obj : any Python object

Returns:

lineno : int

The line number where the object definition starts.