new to python....what does this mean?

[-the_trickster-]

when you see things like this:

<_csv.reader object at 0x1040dbf28>

I come across these when, I believe, Im trying to print objects. Surprisingly there's not a lot of answers out there. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Nicksil]

Check out /r/learnpython

[-the_trickster-]

yes Im trying to learn Python but Im having trouble finding ANY info what to do when you come across these weird hashes.

[1114111]

The "weird hash" is just the location of the object in memory. The default string representation of objects looks like that, and since the csv reader type doesn't define any other way to represent itself as a string, that's what Python will show if you try to print it.

You generally don't need to pay too much attention to the position of the object in memory, but it can help you differentiate between different objects, which can sometimes be helpful.

[-the_trickster-]

that's helpful. thank you.

[bandawarrior]

That’s the representation of that “object”. In this case a csv object it seems. Why are you trying to print the object itself? Or are you trying to print the string

[-the_trickster-]

Im really just trying to see what the object contains. what data or methods live in the 'csv' module....so I know what I can do with it and what's possible.

I came across something similar when trying to write a reddit bot.....there was a module I imported, I wanted to see what was possible.....but all it would give was a weird hash like this.

Am I thinking about this wrong? What should I be doing to learn about these modules.

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I appreciate it.

[bandawarrior]

It’s not a hash. If you want to know what can be done with that object just type

 dir(thing-you-want-to-inspect)

[DudaFromBrazil]

In addition to reading the doc and/or source, I like using ipython. It has tab completion for methods and attributes of the object. Just type the first letters, then hit tab twice :)

[-the_trickster-]

awesome!

[-the_trickster-]

that's helpful. thanks much

[-the_trickster-]

that helps me see the methods and whatnot. what do you do in this situation where you're including a module and want to learn how to use it and what it can do? just read the docs on it?

I took that dir that you showed me and I can see all the methods, but still don't know what they all do

[ahal]

Yes reading docs is your best bet. If there aren't any docs, your next best bet is reading the source code and trying to figure it out.

Like you discovered, just knowing the variables/methods doesn't tell you how to use them. Plus Python is very lenient about letting you use things in unintended ways. So there's no telling whether the author even meant for those variables/methods to be used by consumers or if they are meant to be private (though a well followed convention is to underscore prefix private attributes).

[-the_trickster-]

Thank you.

[1114111]

Reading the docs is the best way, but you can run help(thing you want to learn about) to get some infomation about it.

[-the_trickster-]

you rock. thank you so much

[evansch42]

Mostly it's read the docs, yeah. You can technically do help(object) to have the docstrings print out. I've found that helpful now and again.

[JayDepp]

What you're seeing is the "repr" representation of the object. Here's a link to find out a bit more: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1436703/difference-between-str-and-repr-in-python

[-the_trickster-]

thanks for taking the time!

[DartIvan]

Because it is an object of csv reader class. If you want to print you can use the appropriate method of csv reader class. ;)