FAQ: __str__ vs __repr__

[Jan Danielsson]

  Sorry, but I Just Don't Get It. I did search the 'net, I did read the
FAQ, but I'm too dumb to understand.

   As far as I can gather, __str__ is just a representation of the
object. For instance:

class ServerConnection:
   def __str__(self):
      buf = "Server: " + self.name + "\n"
      buf += "Sent bytes: " + str(self.sentBytes) + "\n"
      buf += "Recv bytes: " + str(self.recvBytes) + "\n"
      return buf

   However, I don't understand what __repr__ should be. There's a phrase
in the documentation which makes it highly confusing for a beginner like
me: "If at all possible, this should look like a valid Python expression
that could be used to recreate an object with the same value (given an
appropriate environment).". What does that mean? Does it mean that I
should return:

   def __str__(self):
      buf = "self.name=" + self.name + "\n"
      buf += "self.sentBytes=" + str(self.sentBytes) + "\n"
      buf += "self.recvBytes=" + str(self.recvBytes) + "\n"
      return buf

   ..or is there some other "valid Python expression" format which I
have yet to encounter?