Getting help in IPython
IPython has an in-depth integrated help system. You can get help on IPython’s magic functions, view documentation from a single function, check out syntax-highlighted source code, or enter the Python interactive help system. Here’s a list of the commands to use.
| lsmagic | lists the magic commands |
| ? | (at the end of a function or variable) show help |
| ?? | (at the end of a function or object) show detailed help; often includes source code |
| help(sys) | online documentation for the sys module (sys must be imported first) |
| help(’for’) | online doc for the for keyword |
| help() | enters the help system |
| topics | (at the help prompt) lists help topics. Type one to view it. |
| q | (at the help prompt) Exit the help system. |
Import the re module (regular expression module) as an example for the commands below:
import re
| pdef re.match | just the initialization expression for the re.match function |
| pdoc re.match | just the help text for re.match |
| pinfo re.match | same as using re.match? (shows help) |
| psource re.match | same as using re.match?? (shows detailed help) |
| pfile re.match | shows the contents of the file where the function is defined |
| pycat scriptName | displays the file, scriptName, in syntax-highlighted text |
| edit -x re.match | opens the source file for re.match in default editor |
Tags: help, IPython, IPython help, Python