How to print Docstring of python function from inside the function itself?

def my_func():
    """Docstring goes here."""
    print my_func.__doc__

This will work as long as you don't change the object bound to the name my_func.

new_func_name = my_func
my_func = None

new_func_name()
# doesn't print anything because my_func is None and None has no docstring

Situations in which you'd do this are rather rare, but they do happen.

However, if you write a decorator like this:

def passmein(func):
    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        return func(func, *args, **kwargs)
    return wrapper

Now you can do this:

@passmein
def my_func(me):
    print me.__doc__

And this will ensure that your function gets a reference to itself (similar to self) as its first argument, so it can always get the docstring of the right function. If used on a method, the usual self becomes the second argument.

This should work (in my tests it does, also included output). You could probably use __doc__ instead of getdoc, but I like it, so thats just what i used. Also, this doesn't require you to know the names of the class/method/function.

Examples both for a class, a method and a function. Tell me if it's not what you were looking for :)

from inspect import *

class MySelfExplaningClass:
    """This is my class document string"""

    def __init__(self):
        print getdoc(self)

    def my_selfexplaining_method(self):
        """This is my method document string"""
        print getdoc(getattr(self, getframeinfo(currentframe()).function))


explain = MySelfExplaningClass()

# Output: This is my class document string

explain.my_selfexplaining_method()

# Output: This is my method document string

def my_selfexplaining_function():
    """This is my function document string"""
    print getdoc(globals()[getframeinfo(currentframe()).function])

my_selfexplaining_function()

# Output: This is my function document string

This works:

def my_function():
  """Docstring for my function"""
  #print the Docstring here.
  print my_function.__doc__

my_function()

in Python 2.7.1

This also works:

class MyClass(object):
    def my_function(self):
        """Docstring for my function"""
        #print the Docstring here, either way works.
        print MyClass.my_function.__doc__
        print self.my_function.__doc__


foo = MyClass()

foo.my_function()

This however, will not work on its own:

class MyClass(object):
    def my_function(self):
        """Docstring for my function"""
        #print the Docstring here.
        print my_function.__doc__


foo = MyClass()

foo.my_function()

NameError: global name 'my_function' is not defined

How to print Docstring of python function from inside the function itself?

Related

Recent Posts