Currently when working with interactive sessions using the dir() or dir(module) built in is incredibly useful for exploring what functionality is available in a module. (Especially the regrettable libraries or modules that add really valuable functionality but have no or limited docstrings).
However I often find that when a module adds a lot of functions I need to filter those entries to be able to find the one that I need, e.g.: >>> import mpmath >>> dir(mpmath) # This produces 390+ lines of output but >>> for name in dir(mpmath): ... if 'sin' in name: ... print(name) # gives me a mere 13 to consider as candidates What I would really like to do is: >>> dir(mpmath.*sin*) However, I know that the interpreter will hit problems with one or more operators being embedded in the module name. What I would like to suggest is extending the dir built-in to allow an optional filter parameter that takes fnmatch type wild card as an optional filter. Then I could use: >>> dir(mpmath, "*sin*") To narrow down the candidates. Ideally, this could have a recursive variant that would also include listing, (and filtering), any sub-packages. -- Steve (Gadget) Barnes Any opinions in this message are my personal opinions and do not reflect those of my employer. --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
