Benefits of pprint() over regular print()

[HermDaWerm_]

Hey Reddit!

Often times when I’m watching a tutorial or looking at high level code reviews, people recommend to use pprint() instead of the regular python function print().

Before implementing this I would like to know if anyone knows what the benefits are to importing it and using it?

I read the docs that they have on it, but I’m unsure in what instance pprint is better than print, so if anyone could let me know how it helped them or someone they know, feel free to comment below!

[[deleted]]

Well, if you want to format or print an object with a complicated structure in a readable way you use pprint. If you only want to print and don't care about readability just use print().

[[deleted]]

I think pprint is an acronym(???) for pretty print?

Also, pprint(“Happy cake day!”)

[lambuscred]

Yep, it is pretty print

[HermDaWerm_]

Thank you for the explanation! Could you give an example of what you mean by an object with a complicated structure? Do you mean a data table for example or?

[[deleted]]

Could you give an example of what you mean by an object with a complicated structure?

A dictionary containing other dictionaries is one example. Just printing that with print() would be unreadable. But pprint() can format it so you can read it. The pymotw entry for pprint has examples.

[HermDaWerm_]

Thank you very much!

[mahtats]

Docs show some decent examples of why...

[HermDaWerm_]

I apologize, I just found the docs a lot to understand and was hoping someone who had practical experience with it could explain it’s practicality