How to print module documentation in Python

Question

I know this question is very simple, I know it must have been asked a lot of times and I did my search on both SO and Google but I could not find the answer, probably due to my lack of ability of putting what I seek into a proper sentence.

I want to be able to read the docs of what I import.

For example if I import x by "import x", I want to run this command, and have its docs printed in Python or ipython.

What is this command-function?

Thank you.

PS. I don't mean dir(), I mean the function that will actually print the docs for me to see and read what functionalities etc. this module x has.

Adarsh TS · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-30 13:56:04Z

37

You can use the .__doc__ attribute of the module of function:

In [14]: import itertools

In [15]: print itertools.__doc__
Functional tools for creating and using iterators..........

In [18]: print itertools.permutations.__doc__
permutations(iterable[, r]) --> permutations object

Return successive r-length permutations of elements in the iterable.

permutations(range(3), 2) --> (0,1), (0,2), (1,0), (1,2), (2,0), (2,1)

Both of help() and __doc__ work fine on both inbuilt and on our own modules:

file: foo.py

def myfunc():
    """
    this is some info on myfunc

    """
    foo=2
    bar=3


In [4]: help(so27.myfunc)


In [5]: import foo

In [6]: print foo.myfunc.__doc__

     this is some info on func

In [7]: help(foo.myfunc)


Help on function myfunc in module foo:

myfunc()
    this is some info on func

edited Jan 30, 2020 at 13:56

Adarsh TS

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answered Oct 24, 2012 at 18:00

Ashwini Chaudhary

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1 Comment

Phil Over a year ago

Ashwini, thanks again and again. Excellent explanation. I have a tiny little question though. Say I'm on ipython client and I run the help command and it prints the docs, how do I go back to ipython? ;-) escape, backspace, space, enter.. no characters take me back except termination of ipython.

Josh Lee · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-24 17:57:33Z

24

pydoc foo.bar from the command line or help(foo.bar) or help('foo.bar') from Python.

answered Oct 24, 2012 at 17:57

Josh Lee

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4 Comments

Phil Over a year ago

Thank you Josh! Your answer solves my issue big time as well but for future reference for others I am choosing the other answer as "the" answer since it contains a bit more info for other newbies like myself.

Saheel Godhane Over a year ago

@josh-lee +1 for mentioning the command line option. What if I want to print the documentation of the module from within __main__ function of a module?

R J Over a year ago

I can't thank you enough for this. I was looking for a simple way to have text dump of the module help. This was exactly what I was looking for.

Syvshc Over a year ago

Furthermore, if the doc is too long to read in cmd, we can use pydoc foo.bar > foo.txt to output the doc to foo.txt

Codemaker2015 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-27 18:05:03Z

2

You can use help() function to display the documentation. or you can choose method.__doc__ descriptor.

Eg: help(input) will give the documentation on input() method.

answered Feb 27, 2019 at 18:05

Codemaker2015

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