Ipdb and method documentation

Question

I have to analyze methods a foreign API, and how I usually do it it to write a test script, or find an example code, do a

ipdb.set_trace()

Where I want to experiment, and than take a look at currently available variables, objects and their methods. However, when I want to check the documentation the way Ipython offers

object.method?

I get

*** SyntaxError: invalid syntax (<stdin>, line 1)

If I try

help(object.method)

It gives

*** No help on (object.method)

Does that mean that there is no documentation for the selected method, or am I using the wrong way of calling it?

bravmi · Answer 1 · 2014-04-08T06:27:51.123

9

Actually !help(object.method) works, you just need to signify with ! that it's a python command, not ipdb help command. Though convenient question mark doesn't work that way unfortunately.

edited Apr 08 '14 at 06:27

answered Mar 25 '14 at 08:40

bravmi

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Does not seem to work in Python 3.6.5 with IPython 6.4.0. It takes me to bash. – danuker Jun 22 '18 at 17:16

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 18 '12 at 15:58

6

The help() function is actually a wrapper around pydoc.help() which means that you can do something like:

ipdb> import math
ipdb> import pydoc
ipdb> pydoc.help(math.log)

answered Sep 18 '12 at 15:58

Daniel

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Ipdb and method documentation

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