Python 3: how to check a method's default/ arguments

Question

I know in python, you can use, say dir(list)to find out all the methods of listobject, and then use help(list.pop) to look more of the details.

but when I came across datetimelibrary, so there is a timedeltamethod which has the following attributes

datetime.timedelta(days = 1)

datetime.timedelta(1)

datetime.timedelta(hours = 1)

datetime.timedelta(0, 3600)

datetime.timedelta(seconds = 1)

datetime.timedelta(0, 1)

but I looked all over the help(datetime.timedelta) documents, it only lists days, seconds in the library, there's nowhere to find hours attribute.

just in general, how do you find all the attributes of a method?

rmunn · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-16 04:18:44Z

1

In general, you're better off bookmarking the Python documentation than using help(some_function): help() shows you the function's __doc__ attribute, which is usually a short reference to the function. Instead, if you'd gone to:

https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#timedelta-objects

you would have found the hours parameter (and several others) that you were looking for.

answered Sep 16, 2015 at 4:18

rmunn

37k11 gold badges80 silver badges107 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Roland Smith Over a year ago

If it's not in the standard library, and if the documentation is not on readthedocs.org, an alternate method is to just read the source code. (Unless it's an extension in C like numpy, in which case you will need to rely on the documentation.)

Chumoon Over a year ago

Thank you rmunn. I'm used to use the function in R which gives all the documents you need.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Python 3: how to check a method's default/ arguments

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related