Thursday, October 1, 2009

Python - printing complex objects with pretty printing

# Pretty printing (using the pprint module) transforms 
# python objects into human readable output. 
# 
# Use pprint when you need to display a complex 
# data structure to users. 
 
 
import string
import pprint
# pprint python doc
 
d = {}
 
for i in string.ascii_lowercase:
    d[i] = string.ascii_lowercase.replace(i, ' ')
 
print "not useful output:" 
print d
# output: 
#   not useful output: 
#   {'a': ' bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'c': 'ab defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'b': 
#   'a cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'e': 'abcd fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'd': 'abc 
#   efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'g': 'abcdef hijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'f': 'abcde ghij 
#   klmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'i': 'abcdefgh jklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'h': 'abcdefg ijklmnop 
#   qrstuvwxyz', 'k': 'abcdefghij lmnopqrstuvwxyz', 'j': 'abcdefghi klmnopqrstuv 
#   wxyz', 'm': 'abcdefghijkl nopqrstuvwxyz', 'l': 'abcdefghijk mnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#   'o': 'abcdefghijklmn pqrstuvwxyz', 'n': 'abcdefghijklm opqrstuvwxyz', 'q': ' 
#   abcdefghijklmnop rstuvwxyz', 'p': 'abcdefghijklmno qrstuvwxyz', 's': 'abcdef 
#   ghijklmnopqr tuvwxyz', 'r': 'abcdefghijklmnopq stuvwxyz', 'u': 'abcdefghijkl 
#   mnopqrst vwxyz', 't': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrs uvwxyz', 'w': 'abcdefghijklmnopqr 
#   stuv xyz', 'v': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstu wxyz', 'y': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx 
#   z', 'x': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw yz', 'z': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy '} 
# 
# All the data is there but it is difficult to read. 
# You can use pprint (pretty print) to make things easy to read.  pprint 
#   formats python datastructures to be human readable. 
 
print "human readable output:" 
pprint.pprint(d, indent=4)
# output: 
#human readable output: 
#{   'a': ' bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'b': 'a cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'c': 'ab defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'd': 'abc efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'e': 'abcd fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'f': 'abcde ghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'g': 'abcdef hijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'h': 'abcdefg ijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'i': 'abcdefgh jklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'j': 'abcdefghi klmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'k': 'abcdefghij lmnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'l': 'abcdefghijk mnopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'm': 'abcdefghijkl nopqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'n': 'abcdefghijklm opqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'o': 'abcdefghijklmn pqrstuvwxyz', 
#    'p': 'abcdefghijklmno qrstuvwxyz', 
#    'q': 'abcdefghijklmnop rstuvwxyz', 
#    'r': 'abcdefghijklmnopq stuvwxyz', 
#    's': 'abcdefghijklmnopqr tuvwxyz', 
#    't': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrs uvwxyz', 
#    'u': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrst vwxyz', 
#    'v': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstu wxyz', 
#    'w': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv xyz', 
#    'x': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw yz', 
#    'y': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwx z', 
#    'z': 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy '} 
# 
# Formatted in this fashion its easy to see what 
# data is being stored in the dict. 
 
 

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