__doc__ — Easy Examples

The docstring of a module, class, method, or function

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Accessing __doc__

How to access and use __doc__.

python
# __doc__ holds the docstring
def greet(name):
    """Greet someone by name."""
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

print(greet.__doc__)
print(list.__doc__[:100])

__doc__ is a special attribute that the docstring of a module, class, method, or function.

__doc__ in practice

Using __doc__ in everyday code.

python
# More __doc__ examples
print("__doc__ is a special Python attribute")

# Every object has certain dunder attributes
obj = object()
attrs = [a for a in dir(obj) if a.startswith("__")]
print(f"object has {len(attrs)} dunder attributes")

Understanding __doc__ helps you introspect and debug Python objects.

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