python: how to get information about a function?

Question

When information about a type is needed you can use:

my_list = []
dir(my_list)

gets:

['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__delitem__', '__delslice__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__getitem__', '__getslice__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__iadd__', '__imul__', '__init__', '__iter__', '__le__', '__len__', '__lt__', '__mul__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__reversed__', '__rmul__', '__setattr__', '__setitem__', '__setslice__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert', 'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']

or:

dir(my_list)[36:]

gets:

['append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert', 'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']

Now, in the documentation of Python information can be found about these functions, but I would like to get info about these functions in the terminal/command-line.
How should this be done?

Asked By: taper

||

Source

Answer 1

In python: help(my_list.append) for example, will give you the docstring of the function.

>>> my_list = []
>>> help(my_list.append)

    Help on built-in function append:

    append(...)
        L.append(object) -- append object to end

Answered By: TyrantWave

Answer 2

Try

help(my_list)

to get built-in help messages.

Answered By: Olli

Answer 3

Or

help(list.append)

if you’re generally poking around.

Answered By: DetDev

Answer 4

You can use pydoc.

Open your terminal and type python -m pydoc list.append

The advantage of pydoc over help() is that you do not have to import a module to look at its help text.
For instance python -m pydoc random.randint.

Also you can start an HTTP server to interactively browse documentation by typing python -m pydoc -b (python 3)

For more information python -m pydoc

Answered By: Andreas Chatzivasileiadis

Answer 5

help(functionname)
Can use this to print the Additional Info About the function you specified in help(..)

Answered By: Abhyu08

python: how to get information about a function?

Question:

Answers: