how to use __str__ and __repr__?

[Jim Newton]

thanks for responding,
i was expecting class().__str__()
to evaluate to the string "<__main__.another instance at 0x8132b64>"
because that what print does with class().
but alas it does not.

why does print class() not give me the same error as class().__str__()?
that's what i do not understand.

-jim


Larry Bates wrote:
> I don't understand what you are trying to do, but
> the problem is that when you define class 'another'
> the following line doesn't make sense:
> 
> middle = " ".join( [ substr.__str__() for substr in self])
> 
> The instance of another doesn't have a __str__ method
> defined (e.g. it's an empty class).  All of your other
> tests have a class that does have a __str__ method
> because it was inherited from the baseclass list.
> 
> You could try:
> 
> class another(list):
>     pass
> 
> Larry Bates
> Syscon, Inc.
> 
> "Jim Newton" <jimka at rdrop.com> wrote in message
> news:2ik7qrFo8httU1 at uni-berlin.de...
> 
>>hi all, does anyone know what print does if there is no __str__ method?
>>i'm trying ot override the __repr__.   If anyone can give me some advice
>>it would be great to have.
>>
>>I have defined a lisp-like linked list class as a subclass of list.
>>The __iter__ seems to work as i'd like, by traversing the links,
>>and the __repr__ seems to work properly for somethings but not others.
>>
>>The basic idea is that a list such as [ 1, 2, 3, 4] is converted to
>>[1, [2, [3, [4, nil]]], thus allowing me to push (cons) a new element
>>non-destructively onto the beginning of the list; e.g.
>>
>>x = seq2pair( [ 3,4,5]) --> [ 3, [4, [5, nil]]]
>>y = x.cons(2)           --> [ 2, [3, [4, [5, nil]]]
>>z = y.cons(1)           --> [ 1, [ 2, [3, [4, [5, nil]]]]
>>
>>for elt in z: # iterates elt=1, elt=2, elt=3 ...
>>    pass
>>
>>I would love to know how to define the __repr__ or __str__
>>method so that it is able to print everything the way print
>>normally works, except that instances of my class gets printed
>>special. I want to print [ 1, [ 2, [3, [4, [5, nil]]]]
>>simple as a space seperated list.  It works most of the time.
>>--> ( 1 2 3 4 5)
>>
>>Another question is whether there is a way to promote an
>>empty list [] to an instance of Pair?
>>
>>class Pair(list):
>>
>>     def __iter__(self):
>>         while self:
>>             yield self.car()
>>             self = self.cdr()
>>
>>     def __repr__(self):
>>         middle = " ".join( [ substr.__str__() for substr in self])
>>         return "( " + middle + " )"
>>
>>     #  x = (cons x l_y)
>>     # ==> x = l_y.cons(x)
>>     def cons(self, car):
>>         new = Pair()
>>         new.append(car)
>>         new.append(self)
>>         return new
>>
>>     def car(self):
>>         if self:
>>             return self[0]
>>         return nil
>>
>>     def cdr(self):
>>         if len(self)<2:
>>             return nil
>>         return self[1]
>>
>>nil = Pair()
>>
>>
>># [ 1, 2, 3] --> [1, [2, [3, nil]]]
>>def seq2pair(seq):
>>     new = Pair()
>>     for index in xrange( len(seq), 0, -1):
>>         new = new.cons(seq[index - 1])
>>     return new
>>
>>mylist = seq2pair( [1,2,3,4,5])
>>print mylist   #  correctly prints --> ( 1 2 3 4 5)
>>
>>
>>mylist2 = seq2pair( [11.1, 21.1, 31.1, 41.1, mylist])
>>print mylist2
>>#  correctly prints --> ( 11.1 21.1 31.1 41.1 ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) )
>>
>>class another:
>>     pass
>>
>>print another()  # prints --> <__main__.another instance at 0x8132b64>
>>
>># ????????????????????????????????????????
>>print seq2pair( [ another(), another()  ]) # FAILS
>># ????????????????????????????????????????
>>
>>Traceback (most recent call last):
>>   File "xyz.py", line 52, in ?
>>     print seq2pair( [ another(), another()  ])
>>   File "xyz.py", line 13, in __repr__
>>     return "( " + " ".join( [ substr.__str__() for substr in self]) +
> 
> " )"
> 
>>AttributeError: another instance has no attribute '__str__'
>>
> 
> 
>