Is there a way to define a default print for a class?

[POINTS]

I have a class and I am printing an instance of it:

class Complex:
  def __init__( self, realpart, imagpart = 0 ):
    self.r = realpart
    self.i = imagpart
 
  def show( self ):
    print "(" + str( self.r ) + ", " + str( self.i ) + ")"
 
x = Complex( 1, 2 )
x.show()
print x

This is what gets printed out:

(1, 2)
<__main__.Complex instance at 0x0150C030>
 

Is there a way that we can define a default way to print our class to make the "print x" line print the same way as the "x.show()"?

[ilikepython]

I have a class and I am printing an instance of it:

class Complex:
  def __init__( self, realpart, imagpart = 0 ):
    self.r = realpart
    self.i = imagpart
 
  def show( self ):
    print "(" + str( self.r ) + ", " + str( self.i ) + ")"
 
x = Complex( 1, 2 )
x.show()
print x

This is what gets printed out:

(1, 2)
<__main__.Complex instance at 0x0150C030>
 

Is there a way that we can define a default way to print our class to make the "print x" line print the same way as the "x.show()"?

Yea, you use the __str__ or __repr__:

class whatever:
    def __str__(self):
        return "Test"
 
x = whatever()
print x
 

[POINTS]

Wow thanks that works perfectly! I swear I checked google first...

[bartonc]

Wow thanks that works perfectly! I swear I checked google first...

That's probably how you ended up finding the best Python forum on the web...