In Python is there a debug function equivalent to "print_r" or "var_dump" in PHP?

Question

In Python there is some function for debug equivalent to print_r or var_dump of PHP?

For example, in PHP:

$valor = 'Hello';

var_dump($valor); string(5)'Hello'

In Python would have some similar function for debug?

Answer 1

pr (Python 2) and reprlib (Python 3)

Produces a string-like representation of a passed object such as parameter.

pprint()

Produces formatted data output.

Example (source: pymotw.with):

from pprint import pprint

from pprint_data import data

print 'PRINT:'
print data
print
print 'PPRINT:'
pprint(data)
$ python pprint_pprint.py

PRINT:
[(0, {'a': 'A', 'c': 'C', 'b': 'B', 'e': 'E', 'd': 'D', 'g': 'G', 'f': 'F', 'h': 'H'}), (1, {'a': 'A', 'c': 'C', 'b': 'B', 'e': 'E', 'd': 'D', 'g': 'G', 'f': 'F', 'h': 'H'}), (2, {'a': 'A', 'c': 'C', 'b': 'B', 'e': 'E', 'd': 'D', 'g': 'G', 'f': 'F', 'h': 'H'})]

PPRINT:
[(0,
  {'a': 'A',
   'b': 'B',
   'c': 'C',
   'd': 'D',
   'e': 'E',
   'f': 'F',
   'g': 'G',
   'h': 'H'}),
 (1,
  {'a': 'A',
   'b': 'B',
   'c': 'C',
   'd': 'D',
   'e': 'E',
   'f': 'F',
   'g': 'G',
   'h': 'H'}),
 (2,
  {'a': 'A',
   'b': 'B',
   'c': 'C',
   'd': 'D',
   'e': 'E',
   'f': 'F',
   'g': 'G',
   'h': 'H'})]

These PHP functions are functions of output/writing on screen, whereas var_dump has the peculiarity to show information about the variable.

To get a good approximation of the function var_dump, you can use so on Python 2.7.* and Python 3:

print(vars(a))

As noted by @Miguel, vars() only works if "a" has an attribute Dict, which is a dictionary or mapping of an object that stores attributes of that object, if it is integer or string, e. g., it is no longer possible.

You can use the Debugger python (PDB):

#!python3

'''
    Exemplo de uso do debugger do Python
'''
#Importa a biblioteca PDB
import pdb
#Inicie seu programa
objeto = "maçã"

#Ponto onde o debugger vai começar a exibir informação sobre o programa
pdb.set_trace()
sujeito = "Mauricio"
verbo = "gosta"

frase = sujeito + " " + verbo + " " + objeto

print(frase)