repr and str in python

The purpose of repr() and str() is to display information about object. But there is slight distinction between the two. In this post we will explore that.

By definition repr() method is official representation of object. That means if i want to create an object repr should be descriptive enough to give that information.
Lets take an example of datetime object.

>> from datetime import datetime
>> now_datetime = datetime.now()
>> repr(now_datetime)

prints

>> 'datetime.datetime(2017, 10, 2, 11, 0, 7, 382330)'

so if a want to create a new datetime object repr should be referred for that matter.

new_datetime = datetime.datetime(2017, 11, 12, 15, 56, 9, 343831)

Thats exactly the purpose of repr.

As per doc str() is a 'informal' representation of object. It has be string and you can put whatever you feel like.

>> str(now_datetime)
>> '2017-10-02 11:00:07.382330'


Now the difference
str() it should only return valid string object whereas repr() should either return string or a python expression. 
In case of python expression which can be used to create object.

>> make_this_repr = "x+1"
>> repr(make_this_repr)
>> "'x+1'"
>> x =10
>> eval(make_this_repr)
>> 11


 
Hope you find it useful, thanks for reading.