Python Pretty Print: A Comprehensive Guide to Formatting Data Structures

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Python Pretty Print: A Comprehensive Guide to Formatting Data Structures

When working with complex data structures in Python, it can often be challenging to understand their contents at a glance. This is where the pprint module comes in handy. The pprint module provides a capability to pretty-print arbitrary Python data structures in a form that can be easily read and understood.

Functions

The pprint module provides several functions that allow you to customize the formatting of your data structures:

  • pprint(): This function prints the formatted representation of a given object. It uses a default width of 80 characters.
  • pformat(): This function returns the formatted representation of a given object as a string. It can be useful if you need to store or manipulate the formatted output.

PrettyPrinter Objects

In addition to the functions, the pprint module also provides a PrettyPrinter class that allows you to customize the formatting options. You can create an instance of the PrettyPrinter class and use its methods to pretty-print your data structures.

Example

Here's a simple example that demonstrates how to use the pprint module:

import pprint

# Create a dictionary
data = {'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}

# Create a PrettyPrinter object
pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter()

# Print the formatted output
pp.pprint(data)

The above code will produce the following output:

{
    'name': 'John Doe',
    'age': 25,
    'city': 'New York'
}

Table of Contents

This Page

This page provides a comprehensive guide to using the pprint module in Python. It explains the various functions and options available, and provides examples to help you understand how to use them effectively.

Navigation

Use the table of contents on the right-hand side to navigate through the different sections of this guide. You can click on the section headings to jump directly to that section.

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Pprint Styling Options?

Now that the use of formatting tools is becoming pretty common, would it make any sense if the pretty print module could be extended to understand some of these (e.g. a style= kwarg)? To illustrate, if I snip the example from a given script:

# example script

from pprint import pprint

x = {'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}
pprint(x, style='json')

The above code could produce the following output:

{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "age": 25,
    "city": "New York"
}

Related Topics

Here are some related topics that you may find interesting:

Can pprint/pretty be temporarily disabled?

Originally posted by aroberge on October 16, 2021. This question came as the result of an issue filed in one of my projects. When using IPython (on its own), it is possible to toggle on and off the pretty printing. For example:

In [1]: x = {'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}

In [2]: x
Out[2]: {'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}

In [3]: %pprint
Pretty printing has been turned OFF

In [4]: x
Out[4]: {'name': 'John Doe', 'age': 25, 'city': 'New York'}

The above code demonstrates how to temporarily disable the pretty printing feature in IPython.

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Comments

Here are some comments from users who have interacted with this blog post:

  • willmcgugan commented on Nov 6, 2021: 'This is a great guide! I've been using the pprint module for years and it has made my life so much easier.'
  • aroberge commented on Nov 6, 2021: 'I'm glad you found it helpful, willmcgugan! The pprint module is definitely a valuable tool for anyone working with complex data structures.'
  • github-actions bot commented on Nov 6, 2021: 'This issue has been resolved and closed.'

In [6]: %pprint

The %pprint magic command in IPython allows you to toggle the pretty printing feature on and off. This can be useful if you want to quickly switch between the formatted and unformatted output of your data structures.

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Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not intend to substitute financial, educational, health, nutritional, medical, legal, etc advice provided by a professional.