16.9. rlcompleter — Completion function for GNU readline¶
Source code: Lib/rlcompleter.py
The rlcompleter module defines a completion function suitable for the
readline module by completing valid Python identifiers and keywords.
When this module is imported on a Unix platform with the readline module
available, an instance of the Completer class is automatically created
and its complete() method is set as the readline completer.
Example:
>>> import rlcompleter
>>> import readline
>>> readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
>>> readline. <TAB PRESSED>
readline.__doc__          readline.get_line_buffer(  readline.read_init_file(
readline.__file__         readline.insert_text(      readline.set_completer(
readline.__name__         readline.parse_and_bind(
>>> readline.
The rlcompleter module is designed for use with Python’s interactive
mode.  A user can add the following lines to his or her initialization file
(identified by the PYTHONSTARTUP environment variable) to get
automatic Tab completion:
try:
    import readline
except ImportError:
    print "Module readline not available."
else:
    import rlcompleter
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
On platforms without readline, the Completer class defined by
this module can still be used for custom purposes.
16.9.1. Completer Objects¶
Completer objects have the following method:
- 
Completer.complete(text, state)¶
- Return the stateth completion for text. - If called for text that doesn’t include a period character ( - '.'), it will complete from names currently defined in- __main__,- __builtin__and keywords (as defined by the- keywordmodule).- If called for a dotted name, it will try to evaluate anything without obvious side-effects (functions will not be evaluated, but it can generate calls to - __getattr__()) up to the last part, and find matches for the rest via the- dir()function. Any exception raised during the evaluation of the expression is caught, silenced and- Noneis returned.
