[Tutor] rep() and str(0

[Thomas Rivas]

On Sun Jun 30 2002 you wrote:

>>Firstly, I would like to know what exactly repr() does. 

My understanding is that rep() is a built-in function that  does the same 
thing as the `` operator --  converts an object x to an expression string 
(think REPResentation) that can be evaluated as a valid expression using the 
eval() built-in function. The str() function (think STRing) converts an 
object that is human-friendly that is usually used by the print statement. 
I.e,:

>>>str(4.53-2j)
'(4.53-2j)'
>>>
>>>str(1)
'1'
>>>
>>>str(2e10)
'20000000000.0'
>>>
>>>repr([0, 5, 9, 9])
'[0, 5, 9, 9]'
>>>
>>>`[0, 5, 9, 9]`
'[0, 5, 9, 9]'

In my experience all three usually return the exact same string.

Tom Rivas