interactive help on string functions - howto

[Jeff Shannon]

Helmut Jarausch wrote:

> Many thanks for the hint.
>
> Still I wonder why I have to prefix it with 'str.'
> I don't need to import str and I don't need to prefix rstrip
> with 'str.' to USE it - why do I have to do so with HELP then? 


But you *do* prefix rstrip() with *a* str when you use it.

rstrip() is a string method.  Strings are of type 'str'.  So an 
expression like

    "my text".rstrip()

is exactly equivalent to

    str.rstrip("my text")

as can easily be demonstrated.

 >>> str.rstrip('foo! ')
'foo!'
 >>> 'foo! '.rstrip()
'foo!'
 >>>

Python doesn't know where rstrip() is unless you *tell* it that it's a 
string method.  When you're calling it, you're telling it that it's a 
string method by calling it from an instance of type str.  When passing 
it to help(), you need to tell it that it's a string method by 
prepending 'str.' to it.

Jeff Shannon
Technician/Programmer
Credit International