Question

I have written a class in python that implements __str__(self) but when I use print on a list containing instances of this class, I just get the default output <__main__.DSequence instance at 0x4b8c10>. Is there another magic function I need to implement to get this to work, or do I have to write a custom print function?

Here’s the class:

class DSequence:

    def __init__(self, sid, seq):
        """Sequence object for a dummy dna string"""
        self.sid = sid
        self.seq = seq

    def __iter__(self):
        return self

    def __str__(self):
        return '[' + str(self.sid) + '] -> [' + str(self.seq) + ']'

    def next(self):
        if self.index == 0:
            raise StopIteration
        self.index = self.index - 1
        return self.seq[self.index]

Answer 1

Yes, you need to use __repr__. A quick example of its behavior:

>>> class Foo:
...     def __str__(self):
...             return '__str__'
...     def __repr__(self):
...             return '__repr__'
...
>>> bar = Foo()
>>> bar 
__repr__
>>> print bar 
__str__
>>> repr(bar)
'__repr__'
>>> str(bar)
'__str__'

However, if you don’t define a __str__, it falls back to __repr__, although this isn’t recommended:

>>> class Foo:
...     def __repr__(self):
...             return '__repr__'
...
>>> bar = Foo()
>>> bar
__repr__
>>> print bar
__repr__

All things considered, as the manual recommends, __repr__ is used for debugging and should return something representative of the object.