> When Python's "print" statement/function is invoked, it will print the > textual representation of the object according to its class's __str__ or > __repr__ method. That is, the print function prints out whatever text > the class says it should. > > For classes which don't implement a __str__ or __repr__ method, then > the text "<CLASS object at ADDRESS>" is used - where CLASS is the class > name and ADDRESS is the "memory pointer". > > > If I iterate over the list, I do get the actual text of each element > > and am able to use it. > > > > Also, if I iterate over the list and place each element in a new list > > using append, then each element in the new list is the text I expect > > not memory pointers. > > Look at the __iter__ method of the class of the object you are iterating > over. I suspect that it returns string objects, not the objects that are > in the list itself. > > String objects have a __str__ or __repr__ method that represents them as > the text, so that is what 'print' will output. > > Hope that helps, E.
Yes, that does help. You're right. The author of the library I'm using didn't implement either a __str__ or __repr__ method. Am I correct in assuming that parsing a large text file would be quicker returning pointers instead of strings? I've never run into this before. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
