peek-python

Introduction

Do you use print() or log() to debug your code? If so, peek will make printing debug information really easy. And on top of that, you get some basic benchmarking functionality.

Table of contents

• Installation

• Importing peek

• Inspect variables and expressions

• Inspect execution

• Return value

• Debug entry and exit of function calls

• Benchmarking with peek

• Configuration

• Return a string instead of sending to output

• Disabling peek's output

• Using level to control peek output

• Using color to control peek output

• Copying to the clipboard

• Speeding up disabled peek

• Using peek as a substitute for assert

• Interpreting the line number information

• Configuring at import time

• Working with multiple instances of peek

• Test script

• Using peek in a REPL

• Alternative to peek

• Alternative installation

• Limitations

• Implementation details

• Acknowledgement

• Changelog

• Differences with IceCream

Installation

Installing peek with pip is easy.

pip install peek-python

or when you want to upgrade,

pip install peek-python --upgrade

Alternatively, peek.py can be just copied into you current work directory from GitHub (https://github.com/salabim/peek).

Note that peek requires the asttokens, colorama, executing. six, tomli and pyperclip` modules, all of which will be automatically installed.

Importing peek

All you need is:

import peek

, or the more conventional, but more verbose

from peek import peek

Note that after this, peek is automatically a builtin and can thus be used in any module without importing it there.

Inspect variables and expressions

Have you ever printed variables or expressions to debug your program? If you've ever typed something like

print(add2(1000))

or the more thorough

print("add2(1000)", add2(1000)))

or:

print(f"{add2(1000)=}")

then peek() is here to help. With arguments, peek() inspects itself and prints both its own arguments and the values of those arguments.

def add2(i):
    return i + 2

peek(add2(1000))

prints

add2(1000)=1002

Similarly,

class X:
    a = 3
world = {"EN": "world", "NL": "wereld", "FR": "monde", "DE": "Welt"}

peek(world, X.a)

prints

world={"EN": "world ", "NL": "wereld", "FR": "monde", "DE": "Welt"}, X.a: 3

Just give peek() a variable or expression and you're done. Easy, or what?

Inspect execution

Have you ever used print() to determine which parts of your program are executed, and in which order they're executed? For example, if you've ever added print statements to debug code like

def add2(i):
    print("***add2 1")
    result = i + 2
    print("***add2 2")
    return result

then peek() helps here, too. Without arguments, peek() inspects itself and prints the calling line number and -if applicable- the file name and parent function.

def add2(i):
    peek()
    result = i + 2
    peek()
    return result
peek(add2(1000))

prints something like

#3 in add2()
#5 in add2()
add2(1000)=1002

Just call peek() and you're done. Isn't that easy?

Return Value

peek() returns its argument(s), so peek() can easily be inserted into pre-existing code.

def add2(i):
    return i + 2
b = peek(add2(1000))
peek(b)

prints

add2(1000)=1002
b=1002

Debug entry and exit of function calls

When you apply peek() as a decorator to a function or method, both the entry and exit can be tracked. The (keyword) arguments passed will be shown and upon return, the return value.

@peek()
def mul(x, peek):
    return x * peek
    
print(mul(5, 7))

prints

called mul(5, 7)
returned 35 from mul(5, 7) in 0.000006 seconds
35

It is possible to suppress the print-out of either the enter or the exit information with the show_enter and show_exit parameters, like:

@peek(show_exit=False)
def mul(x, peek):
    return x * peek
    
print(mul(5, 7))

prints

called mul(5, 7)
35

Benchmarking with peek

If you decorate a function or method with peek(), you will be offered the duration between entry and exit (in seconds) as a bonus.

That opens the door to simple benchmarking, like:

import time

@peek(show_enter=False,show_line_number=True)
def do_sort(i):
    n = 10 ** i
    x = sorted(list(range(n)))
    return f"{n:9d}"  
    
for i in range(8):
    do_sort(i)

the ouput will show the effects of the population size on the sort speed:

#5 ==> returned '        1' from do_sort(0) in 0.000027 seconds
#5 ==> returned '       10' from do_sort(1) in 0.000060 seconds
#5 ==> returned '      100' from do_sort(2) in 0.000748 seconds
#5 ==> returned '     1000' from do_sort(3) in 0.001897 seconds
#5 ==> returned '    10000' from do_sort(4) in 0.002231 seconds
#5 ==> returned '   100000' from do_sort(5) in 0.024014 seconds
#5 ==> returned '  1000000' from do_sort(6) in 0.257504 seconds
#5 ==> returned ' 10000000' from do_sort(7) in 1.553495 seconds

It is also possible to time any code by using peek() as a context manager, e.g.

with peek():
    time.sleep(1)

wil print something like

enter
exit in 1.000900 seconds

You can include parameters here as well:

with peek(show_line_number=True, show_time=True):
    time.sleep(1)

will print somethink like:

#8 @ 13:20:32.605903 ==> enter
#8 @ 13:20:33.609519 ==> exit in 1.003358 seconds

Finally, to help with timing code, you can request the current delta with

peek.delta

or (re)set it with

peek.delta = 0

So, e.g. to time a section of code:

peek.delta = 0
time.sleep(1)
duration = peek.delta
peek(duration)

might print something like:

duration=1.0001721999999997

Configuration

For the configuration, it is important to realize that peek is an instance of a class, which has a number of configuration attributes:

------------------------------------------------------
attribute               alternative     default
------------------------------------------------------
prefix                  pr              ""
output                  o               "stdout"
serialize                               pprint.pformat
show_line_number        sln             False
show_time               st              False
show_delta              sd              False
show_enter              se              True
show_exit               sx              True
show_traceback          stb             False
sort_dicts              sdi             False
underscore_numbers      un              False
enabled                 e               True
line_length             ll              160
color                   col             "-"
color_value				colv			"-"
level                   l               0
compact                 c               False
indent                  i               1
depth                   de              1000000
wrap_indent             wi              "     "   
separator               sep             ", "
context_separator       cs              " ==> "
equals_separator        es              "="
values_only             vo              False
value_only_for_fstrings voff            False 
return_none             rn              False
enforce_line_length     ell             False
delta                   dl              0
------------------------------------------------------

It is perfectly ok to set/get any of these attributes directly, like

peek.prefix = "==> "
print(peek.prefix)

But, it is also possible to apply configuration directly, only here, in the call to peek: So, it is possible to say

peek(12, prefix="==> ")

, which will print

==> 12

It is also possible to configure peek permanently with the configure method.

peek.configure(prefix="==> ")
peek(12)

will print

==> 12

It is arguably easier to say:

peek.prefix = "==> "
peek(12)

or even

peek.pr = "==> "
peek(12)

to print

==> 12

Yet another way to configure peek is to get a new instance of peek with peek.new() and the required configuration:

z = peek.new(prefix="==> ")
z(12)

will print

==> 12

Or, yet another possibility is to clone peek (optionally with modified attributes):

peek1 = peek.clone(show_time=True)
peek2 = peek.clone()
peek2.show_time = True

After this peek1 and peek2 will behave similarly (but they are not the same!)

prefix / pr

peek('world', prefix='hello -> ')

prints

hello -> 'world'

prefix can be a function, too.

import time
def unix_timestamp():
    return f"{int(time.time())} "
hello = "world"
peek.prefix = unix_timestamp
peek(hello) 

prints

1613635601 hello='world'

output / o

This will allow the output to be handled by something else than the default (output being written to stdout).

The output attribute can be

• a callable that accepts at least one parameter (the text to be printed)
• a string or Path object that will be used as the filename
• a text file that is open for writing/appending

In the example below,

import sys
peek(1, output=print)
peek(2, output=sys.stderr)
with open("test", "a+") as f:
    peek(3, output=f)
peek(4, output="")

• 1 will be printed to stdout
• 2 will be printed to stderr
• 3 will be appended to the file test
• nothing will be printed/written

As output may be a callable, you can even use this to automatically log any peek output:

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level="INFO")
log = logging.getLogger("demo")
peek.configure(output=log.info)
a = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
peek(a)
a.remove(4)
peek(a)

will print to stdout:

INFO:demo:a={1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
INFO:demo:a={1, 2, 3, 5}

Finally, you can specify the following strings:

"stderr"           to print to stderr
"stdout"           to print to stdout
"stdout_nocolor"   to print to stdout without any colors
"null" or ""       to completely ignore (dummy) output 
"logging.debug"    to use logging.debug
"logging.info"     to use logging.info
"logging.warning"  to use logging.warning
"logging.error"    to use logging.error
"logging.critical" to use logging.critical

E.g.

import sys
peek.output = "stderr"

to print to stderr.

serialize

This will allow to specify how argument values are to be serialized to displayable strings. The default is pformat (from pprint), but this can be changed. For example, to handle non-standard datatypes in a custom fashion. The serialize function should accept at least one parameter. The function may optionally accept the keyword arguments width and sort_dicts, compact, indent, underscore_numbers and depth.

def add_len(obj):
    if hasattr(obj, "__len__"):
        add = f" [len={len(obj)}]"
    else:
        add = ""
    return f"{repr(obj)}{add}"

l7 = list(range(7))
hello = "world"
peek(7, hello, l7, serialize=add_len)

prints

7, hello='world' [len=5], l7=[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] [len=7]

show_line_number / sln

If True, adds the peek() call's line number and possibly the filename and parent function to peek()'s output.

peek.configure(show_line_number=True)
def shout():
    hello="world"
    peek(hello)
shout()

prints something like

#5 in shout() ==> hello='world'

If "no parent" or "n", the parent function will not be shown.

peek.show_line_number = "n"
def shout():
    hello="world"
    peek(hello)
shout()

prints something like

#5 ==> hello='world'

Note that if you call peek without any arguments, the line number is always shown, regardless of the status show_line_number.

See below for an explanation of the information provided.

show_time / st

If True, adds the current time to peek()'s output.

peek.configure(show_time=True)
hello="world"
peek(hello)

prints something like

@ 13:01:47.588125 ==> hello='world'

show_delta / sd

If True, adds the number of seconds since the start of the program to peek()'s output.

import time
peek.show_delta = True
french = "bonjour le monde"
english = "hallo world"
peek(english)
time.sleep(1)
peek(french)

prints something like

delta=0.088 ==> english='hallo world'
delta=1.091 ==> french='bonjour le monde'

show_enter / se

When used as a decorator or context manager, by default, peek ouputs a line when the decorated the function is called or the context manager is entered.

With show_enter=False this line can be suppressed.

show_exit / sx

When used as a decorator or context manager, by default, peek ouputs a line when the decorated the function returned or the context manager is exited.

With show_exit=False this line can be suppressed.

show_traceback / stb

When show_traceback is True, the ordinary output of peek() will be followed by a printout of the traceback, similar to an error traceback.

def x():
    peek(show_traceback=True)

x()
x()

prints

#4 in x()
    Traceback (most recent call last)
      File "c:\Users\Ruud\Dropbox (Personal)\Apps\Python Ruud\peek\x.py", line 6, in <module>
        x()
      File "c:\Users\Ruud\Dropbox (Personal)\Apps\Python Ruud\peek\x.py", line 4, in x
        peek()
#4 in x()
    Traceback (most recent call last)
      File "c:\Users\Ruud\Dropbox (Personal)\Apps\Python Ruud\peek\x.py", line 7, in <module>
        x()
      File "c:\Users\Ruud\Dropbox (Personal)\Apps\Python Ruud\peek\x.py", line 4, in x
        peek()

The show_traceback functionality is also available when peek is used as a decorator or context manager.

line_length / ll

This attribute is used to specify the line length (for wrapping). The default is 160. Peek tries to keep all output on one line, but if it can't it will wrap:

d = dict(a1=1,a2=dict(a=1,b=1,c=3),a3=list(range(10)))
peek(d)
peek(d, line_length=80)

prints

d={'a1': 1, 'a2': {'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 3}, 'a3': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}
d=
    {'a1': 1,
     'a2': {'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 3},
     'a3': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}

color / col and color_value / colv

The color attribute is used to specify the color of the output. There's a choice of black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow. To set the color to 'nothing', use "-".

On top of that, color_value may be used to specify the value part of an output item. By specifying color_value as "" (the default), the value part will be displayed with the same color as the rest of the output.

For instance:

x = "x"
y = "y"
peek(x, y)
peek(x, y, color_value="green")
peek(x, y, color="red")
peek(x, y, color="red", color_value="green")

will result in:

Of course, color and color_value may be specified in a peek.toml file, to make all peek output in a specified color.

[!NOTE]

The color and color_value attributes are only applied when using stdout as output.

Colors can be ignored completely by using `peek.output = "stdout_nocolor"

compact / c

This attribute is used to specify the compact parameter for pformat (see the pprint documentation for details). compact is False by default.

a = 9 * ["0123456789"]
peek.line_length = 80
peek(a)
peek(a, compact=True)

prints

a=
    ['0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789',
     '0123456789']
a=
    ['0123456789', '0123456789', '0123456789', '0123456789', '0123456789',
     '0123456789', '0123456789', '0123456789', '0123456789']

indent / i

This attribute is used to specify the indent parameter for pformat (see the pprint documentation for details). indent is 1 by default.

s = "01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890"
peek.line_length = 80
peek( [s, [s]])
peek( [s, [s]], indent=4)

prints

[s, [s]]=
    ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
     ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890']]
[s, [s]]=
    [   '01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
        ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890']]

depth / de

This attribute is used to specify the depth parameter for pformat (see the pprint documentation for details). depth is 1000000 by default.

s = "01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890"
peek([s,[s,[s,[s,s]]]])
peek([s,[s,[s,[s,s]]]], depth=3)

prints

[s,[s,[s,[s,s]]]]=
    ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
     ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
      ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
       ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
        '01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890']]]]
[s,[s,[s,[s,s]]]]=
    ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
     ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890',
      ['01234567890012345678900123456789001234567890', [...]]]]

wrap_indent / wi

This specifies the indent string if the output does not fit in the line_length (has to be wrapped). Rather than a string, wrap_indent can be also be an integer, in which case the wrap_indent will be that amount of blanks. The default is 4 blanks.

E.g.

d = dict(a1=1,a2=dict(a=1,b=1,c=3),a3=list(range(10)))
peek.line_length = 80
peek(d, wrap_indent="  ")
peek(d, wrap_indent="....")
peek(d, wrap_indent=2)

prints

d=
  {'a1': 1,
   'a2': {'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 3},
   'a3': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}
d=
....{'a1': 1,
.... 'a2': {'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 3},
.... 'a3': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}
d=
  {'a1': 1,
   'a2': {'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 3},
   'a3': [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}

enabled / e

Can be used to disable the output:

peek.enabled = False
s = 'the world is '
peek(s + 'perfect.')
peek.enabled = True
peek(s + 'on fire.')

prints

s + 'on fire.'='the world is on fire.'

and nothing about a perfect world.

sort_dicts / sdi

By default, peek does not sort dicts (printed by pprint). However, it is possible to get the default pprint behaviour (i.e. sorting dicts) with the sorted_dicts attribute:

world = {"EN": "world", "NL": "wereld", "FR": "monde", "DE": "Welt"}
peek(world))
peek(world, sort_dicts=False)
peek(world, sort_dicts=True)

prints

world={'EN': 'world', 'NL': 'wereld', 'FR': 'monde', 'DE': 'Welt'}
world={'EN': 'world', 'NL': 'wereld', 'FR': 'monde', 'DE': 'Welt'}
world={'DE': 'Welt', 'EN': 'world', 'FR': 'monde', 'NL': 'wereld'}

Note that under Python <=3.7, dicts are always printed sorted.

underscore_numbers / un

By default, peek does not add underscores in big numbers (printed by pprint). However, it is possible to get the default pprint behaviour with the underscore_numbers attribute:

numbers = dict(one= 1, thousand= 1000, million=1000000, x1234567890= 1234567890)
peek(numbers)
peek(numbers, underscore_numbers=True)
peek(numbers, un=False)

prints

numbers={'one': 1, 'thousand': 1000, 'million': 1000000, 'x1234567890': 1234567890}
numbers={'one': 1, 'thousand': 1_000, 'million': 1_000_000, 'x1234567890': 1_234_567_890}
numbers={'one': 1, 'thousand': 1000, 'million': 1000000, 'x1234567890': 1234567890}

seperator / sep

By default, pairs (on one line) are separated by , . It is possible to change this with the attribute separator:

a = "abcd"
b = 1
c = 1000
d = list("peek")
peek(a, (b, c), d)
peek(a, (b, c), d, separator=" | ")

prints

a='abcd', (b,c)=(1, 1000), d=['peek', 'c', 'e', 'c', 'r', 'e', 'a', 'm']
a='abcd' | (b,c)=(1, 1000) | d=['peek', 'c', 'e', 'c', 'r', 'e', 'a', 'm']

Note that under Python <=3.7, numbers are never printed with underscores.

context_separator / cs

By default the line_number, time and/or delta are followed by ==>. It is possible to change this with the attribute context_separator:

a = "abcd"
peek(a,show_time=True)
peek(a, show_time=True, context_separator = ' \u279c ')

prints:

@ 09:05:38.693840 ==> a='abcd'
@ 09:05:38.707914 ➜ a='abcd'

equals_separator / es

By default name of a variable and its value are separated by = . It is possible to change this with the attribute equals_separator:

a = "abcd"
peek(a)
peek(a, equals_separator = ' == ")

prints:

a='abcd'
a == 'abcd'

values_only / vo

If False (the default), both the left-hand side (if possible) and the value will be printed. If True, the left hand side will be suppressed:

hello = "world"
peek(hello, 2 * hello)
peek(hello, 2 * hello, values_only=True)

prints

hello='world', 2 * hello='worldworld'
'world', 'worldworld'

The values=True version of peek can be seen as a supercharged print/pprint.

values_only_for_fstrings / voff

If False (the default), both the original f-string and the value will be printed for f-strings. If True, the left_hand side will be suppressed in case of an f-string:

x = 12.3
peek(f"{x:0.3e}")
peek.values_only_for_fstrings = True
peek(f"{x:0.3e}")

prints

f"{x:0.3e}"='1.230e+01'
'1.230e+01'

Note that if values_only is True, f-string will be suppressed, regardless of values_only_for_fstrings.

return_none / rn

Normally, peek()returns the values passed directly, which is usually fine. However, when used in a notebook or REPL, that value will be shown, and that can be annoying. Therefore, if return_noneis True, peek()will return None and thus not show anything.

a = 3
b = 4
print(peek(a, b))
peek.return_none = True
print(peek(a, b))

prints

a=3, b=4
(3, 4)
a=3, b=4
None

enforce_line_length / ell

If enforce_line_length is True, all output lines are explicitly truncated to the given line_length, even those that are not truncated by pformat.

delta / dl

The delta attribute can be used to (re)set the current delta, e.g.

peek.dl = 0
print(peek.delta)

prints a value that id slightly more than 0.

provided / pr

If provided is False, all output for this call will be suppressed. If provided is True, output will be generated as usual (obeying the enabled attribute).

x = 1
peek("should print", provided=x > 0)
peek("should not print", provided=x < 0)

This will print

should print

Return a string instead of sending to output

peek(*args, as_str=True) is like peek(*args) but the output is returned as a string instead of written to output.

hello = "world"
s = peek(hello, as_str=True)
print(s, end="")

prints

hello='world'

Note that if enabled=False, the call will return the null string ("").

Disabling peek's output

peek1 = peek.fork(show_delta=True)
peek(1)
peek1(2)
peek.enabled = False
peek(3)
peek1(4)
peek1.enabled = True
peek(5)
peek1(6)
print(peek1.enabled)

prints

1
delta=0.011826 ==> 2
5
delta=0.044893 ==> 6
True

Of course peek() continues to return its arguments when disabled, of course.

It is also possible to suppress output with the provided attribute (see above).

Using peek as a substitute for assert

Peek has a method assert_ that works like assert, but can be enabled or disabled with the enabled flag.

temperature = -1
peek.assert_(temperature > 0)

This will raise an AttributeError.

But

peek.enabled = False
temperature = -1
peek.assert_(temperature > 0)

will not.

Note that with the attribute propagation method, you can in effect have a layered assert system.

Using level to control peek output

It is possible to attach a (float) level to a peek statement. By default, this level is 0. E.g.:

peek("critical", level=0)
peek("important", level=1)
peek("warning", level=2)

With peek.show_level() the program may select which level(s) to show or not.

Notice that a level matches if any of the specifiers conditions is met.

peek.show_level("") disables peek output completely.

It is also possible to use a float value where the string is expected: peek.show_level(2) ==> 2

Only peek with a level that meets any of the specifications is printed.

An obvious use is to set the level of critical info to 0, important info to 1 and warning to 2. Then peek.show_level = "-1" will show critical and important info, but no warning info.

The default show_level may, of course, be specified in a peek.toml file.

Note that the show_level is defined on a global level and is not related to any particular peek instance,

It might be useful to define a number of different peek instances, each related to a certain level, like:

peek0 = peek.fork(color="red", level=0)
peek1 = peek.fork(color="yellow", level=1)
peek2 = peek.fork(color="green", level=2) 

If level of a peek statement is the null string, peek will never print. That can be useful to disable peek debug info on a per peek instance basis, e.g.:

peek_cond = peek.new()
peek_cond(1)
peek_cond.level = ""
peek_cond(2)

This will print only 1.

The most easy form for peek.show_level is just a simple value as argument, like peek.show.level(2), which will make only level 2 peeks to work.

peek.show_level can have a number (usually 1) of arguments.

Each parameter may be:

• a float value or

• a string with the format from - to , where both from and to are optional. If from is omitted, -1E30 is assumed. If to is omitted, 1E30 is assumed. Negative values have to be parenthesized.

Examples:

• peek.show_level (1) ==> show level 1
• peek.show_level (1, -3) ==> show level 1 and level -3
• peek.show_level ("1-2") ==> show level between 1 and 2
• peek.show_level("-") ==> show all levels
• peek.show_level("") ==> show no levels
• peek.show_level("1-")==> show all levels >= 1
• peek.show_level("-10.2")==> show all levels <=10.2
• peek.show_level(1, 2, "5-7", "10-") ==> show levels 1, 2, between 5 and 7 (inclusive) and >= 10
• peek.show_level((-3)-3") ==> show levels between -3 and 3 (inclusive)
• peek.show_level() ==> returns the current show_level

show_level can also be called with a minimum and/or a maximum value, e.g.

• peek.show_level(min=1) ==> show all levels >= 1
• peek.show_level(max=10.2) ==> show all levels <= 10.2
• peek.show_level(min=1, max=10) ==> show all levels between 1 and 10 (inclusive)

Note that min or max cannot be combined with a specifier as above

show_level can also be used as a context managerl:

with peek.show_level(1):
    peek(1, level=1)
    peek(2, level=2)

This will print one line with1 only.

Using color to control peek output

The method peek.show_color() can be used to show only peek output for certain colors.

For instance, with peek.show_color("blue red"), subsequent peek commands will print only if the color is blue or red. With peek.show_color("-") only not colored output will be shown.

It is also possible to specify which colors not to show. E.g. peek.show_color("not green yellow" will show all peeks apart from those in green or yellow. With peek.show_color("not -") only colored peeks will be shown.

With peek.show_color() the current value can be queried.

Finally, peek.show_color() can be used as a context manager:

with peek.show_color("blue red"):
    peek(1, color="blue")
    peek(2)
peek(3)

This will print 1 and 3.

It is possible to use both peek.show_level() and peek.show_color() at the same time, but this might be confusing.

Copying to the clipboard

It is possible to copy a value to the clipboard. There are two ways:

With peek(*args, to_clipboard=True)

With the optional keyword argument, to_clipboard:

• If to_clipboard==False (the default), nothing is copied to the clipboard.
• If to_clipboard==True, the value of the the first parameter will be copied to the clipboard. The output itself is as usual.

Examples:

part1 = 200
extra = "extra"
peek(part1, extra, to_clipboard=True)
    # will print part1=200, extra='extra' and copy 200 to the clipboard
peek(200, to_clipboard=True)\
    # will print 200 and copy 200 to the clipboard
peek(to_clipboard=True)
    # will print #5 (or similar) and empty the clipboard

Note that to_clipboard is not a peek attribute and can only be used when calling peek, If as_str==True, to_clipboard is ignored.

With peek.to_clipboard

Just use peek.to_clipboard to copy any value to the clipboard. So,

part1 = 1234
peek.to_clipboard(part1)

will copy 1234 to the clipboard and write copied to clipboard: 1234 to the console. If the confirmation message is not wanted, just add confirm=False, like

peek.to_clipboard(part1, confirm=False)

General

Implementation detail: the clipboard functionality uses pyperclip, apart from under Pythonista, where the builtin clipboard module is used.

This functionality is particularly useful for entering an answer of an Advent of Code solution to the site.

Interpreting the line number information

When show_line_number is True or peek() is used without any parameters, the output will contain the line number like:

#3 ==> a='abcd'

If the line resides in another file than the main file, the filename (without the path) will be shown as well:

#30[foo.py] ==> foo='Foo'

And finally when used in a function or method, that function/method will be shown as well:

#456[foo.py] in square_root ==> x=123

The parent function can be suppressed by setting show_line_number or sln to "n" or "no parent".

Configuring at import time

It can be useful to configure peek at import time. This can be done by providing a peek.toml file which can contain any attribute configuration overriding the standard settings. E.g. if there is an peek.toml file with the following contents

outpout = "stderr"
show_time = true
ll = 160
compact = true

in the same folder as the application, this program:

hello = "world"
peek(hello)

will print to stderr (rather than stdout):

@ 14:53:41.392190 ==> hello='world'

At import time current directory will be searched for peek.toml and if not found, one level up, etc. until the root directory is reached.

Please observe that toml values are slightly different from their Python equivalents:

-----------------------------------
Python     toml
-----------------------------------
True       true
False      false
strings    preferably double quoted
-----------------------------------

Note that not-specified attributes will remain the default settings.

For obvious reasons, it is not possible to specify serialize in a peek.toml file.

Working with multiple instances of peek

Normally, only the peek() object is used.

It can be useful to have multiple instances, e.g. when some of the debugging has to be done with context information and others requires an alternative prefix.

THere are several ways to obtain a new instance of peek:

• by using peek.new()

  With this a new peek object is created with the default attributes and possibly peek.toml overrides.

• by using peek.new(ignore_toml=True)

  With this a new peekobject is created with the default attibutes. Any peek.toml files asre ignored.

• by using peek.fork()

  With this a new peek object is created with the same attributes as the object it is created ('the parent') from. Note that any non set attributes are copied (propagated) from the parent.

• by using peek.clone(), which copies all attributes from peek()

  With this a new peek object is created with the same attributes as the object it is created ('the parent') from. Note that the attributes are not propagated from the parent, in this case.

• with peek() used as a context manager

In either case, attributes can be added to override the default ones.

Example

peek_with_line_number = peek.fork(show_line_number=True)
peek_with_new_prefix = peek.new(prefix="==> ")
peek_with_new_prefix_and_time = peek_with_new_prefix.clone(show_time=True)
hello="world"
peek_with_line_number(hello)
peek_with_new_prefix(hello)
peek_with_new_prefix_and_time(hello)
peek.equals_separator = " == "  # this affects only the forked objects
peek_with_line_number(hello)
peek_with_new_prefix(hello)
peek_with_new_prefix_and_time(hello)
with peek(prefix="peek_cm ") as peek_cm:
    peek_cm(hello)
    peek(hello)

prints something like

#28 ==> hello='world'
==> hello='world'
==> @ 09:55:52.122818 ==> hello='world'
#32 ==> hello == 'world'
==> hello='world'
==> @ 09:55:52.125928 ==> hello='world'
peek_cm enter
peek_cm hello == 'world'
hello == 'world'
peek_cm exit in 0.001843 seconds

ignore_toml

With peek.new(ignore_toml=True) an instance of peek without having applied any toml configuration file will be returned. That can be useful when guaranteeing the same output in several setups.

Example

Suppose we have a peek.toml file in the current directory with the contents

{prefix="==>"}

Then

peek_post_toml = peek.new()
peek_ignore_toml = peek.new(ignore_toml=True)
hello = "world"
peek(hello)
peek_post_toml(hello)
peek_ignore_toml(hello)

prints

==>hello='world'
==>hello='world'
hello='world'

Test script

On GitHub is a file test_peek.py that tests (and thus also demonstrates) most of the functionality of peek.

It is very useful to have a look at the tests to see the features (some may be not covered (yet) in this readme).

Using peek in a REPL

Peek may be used in a REPL, but with limited functionality:

• all arguments are just presented as such, i.e. no left-hand side, e.g.

  >> hello = "world"
  >>> peek(hello, hello * 2)
  'hello', 'hellohello'
  ('hello', 'hellohello')
  

• line numbers are never shown
• use as a decorator is not supported
• use as a context manager is not supported

Alternative to peek

Sometimes, even peek is too long during a debug session or it is not suitable to use the name peek.

In that case, it is possible to use p instead

from peek import p

The p object is a fork of peek. That means that attributes of peek are propagated to p, unless overridden.

Limitations

It is not possible to use peek:

• from a frozen application (e.g. packaged with PyInstaller)
• when the underlying source code has changed during execution

Changelog

The changelog can be found here:

• https://github.com/salabim/peek/main/changelog.md or
• https://salabim.org/peek/changelog

Acknowledgement

The peek package is inspired by the IceCream package, but is a nearly complete rewrite. See https://github.com/gruns/icecream

Many thanks to the author Ansgar Grunseid / grunseid.com / [e-mail] .

The peek package is a rebrand of the ycecream package, with enhancements.

Differences with IceCream

The peek module was originally a fork of IceCream, but has many differences:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
characteristic                    peek                        IceCream
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
default name                      peek                        ic
import method                     import peek                 from icecream import ic
number of files                   1                           several
usable without installation       yes                         no
can be used as a decorator        yes                         no
can be used as a context manager  yes                         no
can show traceback                yes                         no
PEP8 (Pythonic) API               yes                         no
sorts dicts                       no by default, optional *)  yes
supports compact, indent,
and underscore_numbers
parameters of pprint              yes **)                     no
use from a REPL                   limited functionality       no
external configuration            via toml file               no
level control                     yes                         no 
observes line_length correctly    yes                         no
benchmarking functionality        yes                         no
suppress f-strings at left hand   optional                    no
indentation                       4 blanks (overridable)      dependent on length of prefix
forking and cloning               yes                         no
test script                       pytest                      unittest
colorize ***)                    yes, off by default         yes, on by default
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*)   under Python <= 3.7, dicts are always sorted (regardless of the sort_dicts attribute
**)  under Python <= 3.7, numbers are never underscored (regardless of the underscore_numnbers attribute
***) peek allows selection of a color, whereas IceCream does coloring based on contents.