Understanding "help()" output? - Printable Version +- Python Forum (https://python-forum.io) +-- Forum: Python Coding (https://python-forum.io/forum-7.html) +--- Forum: General Coding Help (https://python-forum.io/forum-8.html) +--- Thread: Understanding "help()" output? (/thread-5354.html) |
Understanding "help()" output? - Athenaeum - Sep-29-2017 I am fairly new to Python and sometimes have minor trouble understanding the output from help(). First of all, is there a way to tell what formats are acceptable for *args and **kwargs? When the help() function lists methods, it often gives something like: Methods defined here: __method__(self, / ,*args,**kwargs). I would like to play around and experiment with different modules and methods, but often find it difficult because I can't figure out what formats to use for *args and **kwargs. I also assume that this display fails to communicate the number of arguments that are required as well. RE: Understanding "help()" output? - ichabod801 - Sep-29-2017 *args means that the function or method accepts any number of unnamed parameters. The parameters themselves are just expressions or values, and they are separated by commas. **kwargs means that the function or method accepts any number of named parameters, which are a name, and equals sign, and an expression or value. Again, they are separated by commas. RE: Understanding "help()" output? - Larz60+ - Sep-29-2017 Not sure this will help, but: I wrote a package not long after I started programming in python (this is a warning) called PyHarry, available here: https://github.com/Larz60p/PyHarry in that, there is a module named HarryHelp.py (https://github.com/Larz60p/PyHarry/blob/master/HarryHelp.py) In that module, there is a method named 'inspect_getHelp' you might find this useful. I believe the intent was to get all of the help, but you perhaps can scrape some of what's there. RE: Understanding "help()" output? - Athenaeum - Sep-29-2017 So for example, when I type (help(bytes)) and receive: bytes(string, encoding [,errors]) --> errors , Does this command take 2 arguments or 3? The bracket notation with the errors confuses me, partly because the comma is inside the bracket. Also, how can I know what types of arguments are acceptable for the encoding? RE: Understanding "help()" output? - nilamo - Sep-29-2017 The brackets do indicate that that parameter is optional. bytes , in particular, has a huge amount of docs, and if you go down further, you can see what it expects the encoding to be...| | decode(self, /, encoding='utf-8', errors='strict') | Decode the bytes using the codec registered for encoding. | | encoding | The encoding with which to decode the bytes. | errors | The error handling scheme to use for the handling of decoding errors. | The default is 'strict' meaning that decoding errors raise a | UnicodeDecodeError. Other possible values are 'ignore' and 'replace' | as well as any other name registered with codecs.register_error that | can handle UnicodeDecodeErrors. |