When debugging python, I add print statements such as these. print 'i=%s' % `i` print 'foo()=%s' % `foo()` print 'a,b,c=%s' % `a,b,c` I just want to dump the value of a variable or expression. But I don't like having to type the expression twice, everytime. I can solve this in 'C' with a preprocessor macro. Can it be solved in python? John