Python Help Built in Function
Python "help" function
Python has many built-in functions globally available. I'm sure most are familiar with dict, int, str, or even zip.
Today I came across the help function:
help([object])
Invoke the built-in help system. (This function is intended for interactive use.) If no argument is given, the interactive help system starts on the interpreter console. If the argument is a string, then the string is looked up as the name of a module, function, class, method, keyword, or documentation topic, and a help page is printed on the console. If the argument is any other kind of object, a help page on the object is generated.
This function is added to the built-in namespace by the site module.
If you call it inside a script, the output will be redirected to std.out.
Let's say you have the following dict:
user = {'name':'goliat'}
help(user)
The help output would look like this:
Help on dict object:
class dict(object)
| dict() -> new empty dictionary
| dict(mapping) -> new dictionary initialized from a mapping object's
| (key, value) pairs
| dict(iterable) -> new dictionary initialized as if via:
| d = {}
| for k, v in iterable:
| d[k] = v
| dict(**kwargs) -> new dictionary initialized with the name=value pairs
| in the keyword argument list. For example: dict(one=1, two=2)
|
| Methods defined here:
|
| __cmp__(...)
| x.__cmp__(y) <==> cmp(x,y)
|
| __contains__(...)
| D.__contains__(k) -> True if D has a key k, else False
|
| __delitem__(...)
| x.__delitem__(y) <==> del x[y]
|
| __eq__(...)
| x.__eq__(y) <==> x==y
|
| __ge__(...)
| x.__ge__(y) <==> x>=y
|
| __getattribute__(...)
| x.__getattribute__('name') <==> x.name
|
| __getitem__(...)
| x.__getitem__(y) <==> x[y]
|
| __gt__(...)
| x.__gt__(y) <==> x>y
|
| __init__(...)
| x.__init__(...) initializes x; see help(type(x)) for signature
|
| __iter__(...)
| x.__iter__() <==> iter(x)
|
| __le__(...)
| x.__le__(y) <==> x<=y
| __len__(...)
| x.__len__() <==> len(x)
|
| __lt__(...)
| x.__lt__(y) <==> x<y
|
| __ne__(...)
| x.__ne__(y) <==> x!=y
|
| __repr__(...)
| x.__repr__() <==> repr(x)
|
| __setitem__(...)
| x.__setitem__(i, y) <==> x[i]=y
|
| __sizeof__(...)
| D.__sizeof__() -> size of D in memory, in bytes
|
| clear(...)
| D.clear() -> None. Remove all items from D.
|
| copy(...)
| D.copy() -> a shallow copy of D
|
| fromkeys(...)
| dict.fromkeys(S[,v]) -> New dict with keys from S and values equal to v.
| v defaults to None.
|
| get(...)
| D.get(k[,d]) -> D[k] if k in D, else d. d defaults to None.
|
| has_key(...)
| D.has_key(k) -> True if D has a key k, else False
|
| items(...)
| D.items() -> list of D's (key, value) pairs, as 2-tuples
|
| iteritems(...)
| D.iteritems() -> an iterator over the (key, value) items of D
|
| iterkeys(...)
| D.iterkeys() -> an iterator over the keys of D
|
| itervalues(...)
| D.itervalues() -> an iterator over the values of D
|
| keys(...)
| D.keys() -> list of D's keys
|
| pop(...)
| D.pop(k[,d]) -> v, remove specified key and return the corresponding value.
| If key is not found, d is returned if given, otherwise KeyError is raised
|
| popitem(...)
| D.popitem() -> (k, v), remove and return some (key, value) pair as a
| 2-tuple; but raise KeyError if D is empty.
|
| setdefault(...)
| D.setdefault(k[,d]) -> D.get(k,d), also set D[k]=d if k not in D
|
| update(...)
| D.update([E, ]**F) -> None. Update D from dict/iterable E and F.
| If E present and has a .keys() method, does: for k in E: D[k] = E[k]
| If E present and lacks .keys() method, does: for (k, v) in E: D[k] = v
| In either case, this is followed by: for k in F: D[k] = F[k]
|
| values(...)
| D.values() -> list of D's values
|
| viewitems(...)
| D.viewitems() -> a set-like object providing a view on D's items
|
| viewkeys(...)
| D.viewkeys() -> a set-like object providing a view on D's keys
|
| viewvalues(...)
| D.viewvalues() -> an object providing a view on D's values
|
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Data and other attributes defined here:
|
| __hash__ = None
|
| __new__ = <built-in method __new__ of type object>
| T.__new__(S, ...) -> a new object with type S, a subtype of T