The __repr__() and __str__() methods

Python has two string representations of an object. These are closely aligned with the built-in functions repr(), str(), print(), and the string.format() method.

• Generally, the str() method representation of an object is commonly expected to be more friendly to humans. This is built by an object's __str__() method.

• The repr() method representation is often going to be more technical, perhaps even a complete Python expression to rebuild the object. The documentation says:

  For many types, this function makes an attempt to return a string that would yield an object with the same value when passed to eval().

  This is built by an object's __repr__() method.

• The print() function will use str() to prepare an object for printing.

• The format() method of a string can also access these methods. When we use {!r} or {!s} formatting, we're requesting __repr__() or __str__(), respectively.

Let's look at the default implementations first.

The following is a simple class hierarchy...