Python Docstrings

Python docstrings are the string literals that appear right after the definition of a function, method, class, or module. Let's take an example.

Example 1: Docstrings

def square(n):
    '''Takes in a number n, returns the square of n'''
    return n**2

Here, the string literal:

'''Takes in a number n, returns the square of n'''

Inside the triple quotation marks is the docstring of the function square() as it appears right after its definition.

Note: We can also use triple """ quotations to create docstrings.


Python Comments vs Docstrings

Python Comments

Comments are descriptions that help programmers better understand the intent and functionality of the program. They are completely ignored by the Python interpreter.

In Python, we use the hash symbol # to write a single-line comment. For example,

# Program to print "Hello World"
print("Hello World") 

Python Comments Using Strings

If we do not assign strings to any variable, they act as comments. For example,

"I am a single-line comment"

'''
I am a
multi-line comment!
'''

print("Hello World")

Note: We use triple quotation marks for multi-line strings.

Python docstrings

As mentioned above, Python docstrings are strings used right after the definition of a function, method, class, or module (like in Example 1). They are used to document our code.

We can access these docstrings using the __doc__ attribute.


Python __doc__ attribute

Whenever string literals are present just after the definition of a function, module, class or method, they are associated with the object as their __doc__ attribute. We can later use this attribute to retrieve this docstring.

Example 2: Printing docstring

def square(n):
    '''Takes in a number n, returns the square of n'''
    return n**2

print(square.__doc__)

Output

Takes in a number n, returns the square of n

Here, the documentation of our square() function can be accessed using the __doc__ attribute.


Now, let's look at docstrings for the built-in function print():

Example 3: Docstrings for the built-in print() function

print(print.__doc__)

Output

print(value, ..., sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)

Prints the values to a stream, or to sys.stdout by default.
Optional keyword arguments:
file:  a file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
sep:   string inserted between values, default a space.
end:   string appended after the last value, default a newline.
flush: whether to forcibly flush the stream.

Here, we can see that the documentation of the print() function is present as the __doc__ attribute of this function.


Single-line docstrings in Python

Single line docstrings are the documents that fit in one line.

Standard conventions to write single-line docstrings:

  • Even though they are single-lined, we still use the triple quotes around these docstrings as they can be expanded easily later.
  • The closing quotes are on the same line as the opening quotes.
  • There's no blank line either before or after the docstring.
  • They should not be descriptive, rather they must follow "Do this, return that" structure ending with a period.

Let's take an example.

Example 4: Write single-line docstrings for a function

def multiplier(a, b):
    """Takes in two numbers, returns their product."""
    return a*b

Multi-line Docstrings in Python

Multi-line docstrings consist of a summary line just like a one-line docstring, followed by a blank line, followed by a more elaborate description.

The PEP 257 document provides the standard conventions to write multi-line docstrings for various objects.

Some have been listed below:


1. Docstrings for Python Modules

  • The docstrings for Python Modules should list all the available classes, functions, objects and exceptions that are imported when the module is imported.
  • They should also have a one-line summary for each item.

They are written at the beginning of the Python file.

Let's look at the docstrings for the builtin module in Python called pickle.

Example 4: Docstrings of Python module

import pickle
print(pickle.__doc__)

Output

Create portable serialized representations of Python objects.

See module copyreg for a mechanism for registering custom picklers.
See module pickletools source for extensive comments.

Classes:

    Pickler
    Unpickler

Functions:

    dump(object, file)
    dumps(object) -> string
    load(file) -> object
    loads(string) -> object

Misc variables:

    __version__
    format_version
    compatible_formats

Here, we can see that the docstring written at the beginning of the pickle.py module file can be accessed as its docstring.


2. Docstrings for Python Functions

  • The docstring for a function or method should summarize its behavior and document its arguments and return values.
  • It should also list all the exceptions that can be raised and other optional arguments.

Example 5: Docstrings for Python functions

def add_binary(a, b):
    '''
    Returns the sum of two decimal numbers in binary digits.

            Parameters:
                    a (int): A decimal integer
                    b (int): Another decimal integer

            Returns:
                    binary_sum (str): Binary string of the sum of a and b
    '''
    binary_sum = bin(a+b)[2:]
    return binary_sum


print(add_binary.__doc__)

Output

Returns the sum of two decimal numbers in binary digits.

	Parameters:
		a (int): A decimal integer
		b (int): Another decimal integer

	Returns:
		binary_sum (str): Binary string of the sum of a and b

As you can see, we have included a short description of what the function does, the parameter it takes in and the value it returns. The string literal is embedded to the function add_binary as its __doc__ attribute.


3. Docstrings for Python Classes

  • The docstrings for classes should summarize its behavior and list the public methods and instance variables.
  • The subclasses, constructors, and methods should each have their own docstrings.

Example 6: Docstrings for Python class

Suppose we have a Person.py file with the following code:

class Person:
    """
    A class to represent a person.

    ...

    Attributes
    ----------
    name : str
        first name of the person
    surname : str
        family name of the person
    age : int
        age of the person

    Methods
    -------
    info(additional=""):
        Prints the person's name and age.
    """

    def __init__(self, name, surname, age):
        """
        Constructs all the necessary attributes for the person object.

        Parameters
        ----------
            name : str
                first name of the person
            surname : str
                family name of the person
            age : int
                age of the person
        """

        self.name = name
        self.surname = surname
        self.age = age

    def info(self, additional=""):
        """
        Prints the person's name and age.

        If the argument 'additional' is passed, then it is appended after the main info.

        Parameters
        ----------
        additional : str, optional
            More info to be displayed (default is None)

        Returns
        -------
        None
        """

        print(f'My name is {self.name} {self.surname}. I am {self.age} years old.' + additional)

Here, we can use the following code to access only the docstrings of the Person class:

print(Person.__doc__)

Output

    A class to represent a person.

    ...

    Attributes
    ----------
    name : str
        first name of the person
    surname : str
        family name of the person
    age : int
        age of the person

    Methods
    -------
    info(additional=""):
        Prints the person's name and age

Using the help() Function for Docstrings

We can also use the help() function to read the docstrings associated with various objects.

Example 7: Read Docstrings with the help() function

We can use the help() function on the class Person in Example 6 as:

help(Person)

Output

Help on class Person in module __main__:

class Person(builtins.object)
 |  Person(name, surname, age)
 |  
 |  A class to represent a person.
 |  
 |  ...
 |  
 |  Attributes
 |  ----------
 |  name : str
 |      first name of the person
 |  surname : str
 |      family name of the person
 |  age : int
 |      age of the person
 |  
 |  Methods
 |  -------
 |  info(additional=""):
 |      Prints the person's name and age.
 |  
 |  Methods defined here:
 |  
 |  __init__(self, name, surname, age)
 |      Constructs all the necessary attributes for the person object.
 |      
 |      Parameters
 |      ----------
 |          name : str
 |              first name of the person
 |          surname : str
 |              family name of the person
 |          age : int
 |              age of the person
 |  
 |  info(self, additional='')
 |      Prints the person's name and age.
 |      
 |      If the argument 'additional' is passed, then it is appended after the main info.
 |      
 |      Parameters
 |      ----------
 |      additional : str, optional
 |          More info to be displayed (default is None)
 |      
 |      Returns
 |      -------
 |      None
 |  
 |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 |  Data descriptors defined here:
 |  
 |  __dict__
 |      dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
 |  
 |  __weakref__
 |      list of weak references to the object (if defined)

Here, we can see that the help() function retrieves the docstrings of the Person class along with the methods associated with that class.


 

4. Docstrings for Python Scripts

  • The docstrings for Python script should document the script's functions and command-line syntax as a usable message.
  • It should serve as a quick reference to all the functions and arguments.

5. Docstrings for Python Packages

The docstrings for a Python package is written in the package's __init__.py file.

  • It should contain all the available modules and sub-packages exported by the package.

Docstring Formats

We can write docstring in many formats like the reStructured text (reST) format, Google format or the NumPy documentation format. To learn more, visit Popular Docstring Formats

We can also generate documentation from docstrings using tools like Sphinx. To learn more, visit Official Sphinx Documentation

Video: Python docstrings

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