Question

Is there a way to change how an object appears when displayed at the Python interpreter? For example:

>>> test = myobject(2)
>>> test
'I am 2'

OR

>>> test = myobject(2)
>>> test
myobject(2)

Answer 1

Yes, you can provide a definition for the special __repr__ method:

class Test:
    def __repr__(self):
        return "I am a Test"

>>> a = Test()
>>> a
I am a Test

In a real example, of course, you would print out some values from object data members.

The __repr__ method is described in the Python documentation here.