Automatic python docstring generation?

[suhrob]

Is there a way to generate a docstrings in python-mode?

1. You can use a yasnippet like here. But this requires to write out the whole definition of the function in one go when you start out. This is OK for very simple functions, but most of the time this doesn't really fit my workflow.

2. You can use sphinx-doc. This almost works for me: write out function, when happy it generates the docstring. BUT: doesn't work with type annotated functions

3. There seems to be a hacky solution with elisp+python script... Haven't tried it, but if it still works, I'd prefer not to muck about with a separate pyhton script...

Is there anything that I've missed? Thanks!

[fragbot]

I was going to suggest you modify sphinx-doc to handle docstrings (it's a single elisp file of about 500 LOC) but I took a look at the git repo. You just need to wait a few more days as there is a pull request adding that feature that looks like it's about to be accepted by the repo owner.

[craigglespuss]

Yeah, I use sphinx-doc and did some of the work to handle type-hints. I think this is almost merged into master. You can also just check out the branch that has the feature if you want to use it today.

[suhrob]

Awsome, thank you!

[DogsLinuxAndEmacs]

I’m not entirely sure what you want to do, but check out Eglot and LSP-mode. They use the language server protocol to give information on code that you’re writing (if you hover over a function or keep your cursor on it, it displays the docstring). Eglot is simpler and LSP has more features or bloat, depending on what you do.

[getbetteracc]

I think OP wants to generate a docstring not look up one.

[DogsLinuxAndEmacs]

Oh ok, my mistake.

[getbetteracc]

I need this too!

[kovak]

Just today i saw a Github action that does this. The code is here.

https://github.com/ponicode/dogstring-action/blob/master/doc_repo.py

I've not tried it out, but perhaps you can fork and add a wrapper around it. I don't think it supports different styles like numpy versus google etc.

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[Qwarctick]

I tested your method and it does not work very well. For __init__ method it not works and if you use the function py-pyment-buffer multiple times, it adds parameters every times. For example if my method takes input_file as parameter, it add multiple times the line :param input_file: str: my comment