repr() Built-in Function

Python - repr()

Python repr() built-in function returns a string containing printable representation of the given object.

In this tutorial, we will learn the syntax and usage of repr() built-in function with examples.

Syntax

The syntax of repr() function is

repr(object)

where

Parameter	Mandatory/ Optional	Description
object	Mandatory	Any valid Python object.

Examples

1. String representation of user-defined object

In the following program, we take a user defined class Student, created an object student1 of type Student, and printed the output of repr(student1).

Python Program

class Student:
    def __init__(self, name, age, country):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age
        self.country = country

student1 = Student('Mike', 12, 'Canada')

string_representation = repr(student1)
print(string_representation)

Output

<__main__.Student object at 0x102b70310>

The result is a string with the object type and address enclosed in angular brackets.

2. String representation of a List object

In the following program, we take a list x, and print the string representation of this list object using repr() function.

Python Program

x = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']
string_representation = repr(x)
print(string_representation)

Output

['apple', 'banana', 'cherry']

Unlike the result in our previous example, the string representation is readable and contains the details of the given object. This is because List is a built-in class, and generally for the built-in classes, __repr__() function is defined.

Override String Representation of an User-defined Object

We can override the string representation of an object by defining __repr__() method inside the class definition.

In the following program, we define __repr__() function in the Student class. Create a class object of type Student, and print the string returned by repr() function.

Python Program

class Student:
    def __init__(self, name, age, country):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age
        self.country = country

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"[Name: {self.name}, Age: {self.age}, Country: {self.country}]"

student1 = Student('Ram', 12, 'Canada')

string_representation = repr(student1)
print(string_representation)

Output

[Name: Ram, Age: 12, Country: Canada]

Summary

In this Built-in Functions tutorial, we learned the syntax of the repr() built-in function, how to get the string representation of an object, and how to override it using __repr__() function.