pdir2: Pretty dir() printing with joy

Have you ever dreamed of a better output of dir()? I do. So I created this.

Features

• Attributes are grouped by types/functionalities, with beautiful colors.

• Support color customization, here's how.

• Support all platforms including Windows(Thanks to colorama).

• Support ipython, ptpython, bpython and Jupyter Notebook! See wiki for details.

• The return value of pdir() can still be used as a list of names.

• ✨ Attribute searching

  You can search for certain names with .s() or .search():

  

  Search is case-insensitive by default. search(name, case_sensitive=True) does case-sensitive searching.

• :star2: Attribute filtering

  properties: Find properties/variables defined in the inspected object.

  methods: Find methods/functions defined in the inspected object.

  public: Find public attributes.

  own: Find attributes that are not inherited from parent classes.

  These filters can be chained! Order does NOT matter.

  For example, use pdir(obj).public.own.methods to find all public own methods.

  You can also call search on the returned results.

  See a complete example.

Install

Generic

pip install pdir2

About the name. I wanted to call it "pdir", but there's already one with this name on pypi. Mine is better, of course.

Fedora

dnf install python3-pdir2

Automatic Import

As a better alternative of dir(), it's more convenient to automatically import pdir2 when launching REPL. Luckily, Python provides a way to do this. In you .bashrc(or .zshrc), add this line:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pythonstartup

Then, create .pythonstartup in your home folder. Add one line:

import pdir

Next time you launch REPL, pdir() is already there, Hooray!

Development

1. Set up development environment

   • PDM: pdir2 uses PDM to manage dependencies, so you want to make sure it's installed.
   • pyenv: Since you need to test pdir2 on multiple Python versions, pyenv is highly recommended. Make sure you have Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, and 3.14 installed.

2. Install dev dependencies

   Simply run pdm install.

   If you want to work on a specific Python version, run pdm use [PYTHON_VERSION] first to switch PDM to that version (e.g. pdm use 3.9 if you want to debug a Python 3.9 specific issue).

3. Run tests

   Run pdm run tox

The guide may be incomplete. Please file bugs if you encounter any issues.