2. Built-in Functions¶

The Python interpreter has a number of functions built into it that are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order.

		Built-in Functions
abs()	divmod()	input()	open()	staticmethod()
all()	enumerate()	int()	ord()	str()
any()	eval()	isinstance()	pow()	sum()
basestring()	execfile()	issubclass()	print()	super()
bin()	file()	iter()	property()	tuple()
bool()	filter()	len()	range()	type()
bytearray()	float()	list()	raw_input()	unichr()
callable()	format()	locals()	reduce()	unicode()
chr()	frozenset()	long()	reload()	vars()
classmethod()	getattr()	map()	repr()	xrange()
cmp()	globals()	max()	reversed()	zip()
compile()	hasattr()	memoryview()	round()	__import__()
complex()	hash()	min()	set()	apply()
delattr()	help()	next()	setattr()	buffer()
dict()	hex()	object()	slice()	coerce()
dir()	id()	oct()	sorted()	intern()

bin(x)

Convert an integer number to a binary string. The result is a valid Python expression. If x is not a Python int object, it has to define an __index__() method that returns an integer.

New in version 2.6.

chr(i)

Return a string of one character whose ASCII code is the integer i. For example, chr(97) returns the string 'a'. This is the inverse of ord(). The argument must be in the range [0..255], inclusive; ValueError will be raised if i is outside that range. See also unichr().

eval(expression[, globals[, locals]])

The arguments are a string and optional globals and locals. If provided, globals must be a dictionary. If provided, locals can be any mapping object.

Changed in version 2.4: formerly locals was required to be a dictionary.

The expression argument is parsed and evaluated as a Python expression (technically speaking, a condition list) using the globals and locals dictionaries as global and local namespace. If the globals dictionary is present and lacks ‘__builtins__’, the current globals are copied into globals before expression is parsed. This means that expression normally has full access to the standard __builtin__ module and restricted environments are propagated. If the locals dictionary is omitted it defaults to the globals dictionary. If both dictionaries are omitted, the expression is executed in the environment where eval() is called. The return value is the result of the evaluated expression. Syntax errors are reported as exceptions. Example:

>>> x = 1
>>> print eval('x+1')
2

This function can also be used to execute arbitrary code objects (such as those created by compile()). In this case pass a code object instead of a string. If the code object has been compiled with 'exec' as the mode argument, eval()‘s return value will be None.

Hints: dynamic execution of statements is supported by the exec statement. Execution of statements from a file is supported by the execfile() function. The globals() and locals() functions returns the current global and local dictionary, respectively, which may be useful to pass around for use by eval() or execfile().

See ast.literal_eval() for a function that can safely evaluate strings with expressions containing only literals.

hex(x)

Convert an integer number (of any size) to a hexadecimal string. The result is a valid Python expression.

Note

To obtain a hexadecimal string representation for a float, use the float.hex() method.

Changed in version 2.4: Formerly only returned an unsigned literal.

len(s)

Return the length (the number of items) of an object. The argument may be a sequence (string, tuple or list) or a mapping (dictionary).

oct(x)

Convert an integer number (of any size) to an octal string. The result is a valid Python expression.

Changed in version 2.4: Formerly only returned an unsigned literal.

ord(c)

Given a string of length one, return an integer representing the Unicode code point of the character when the argument is a unicode object, or the value of the byte when the argument is an 8-bit string. For example, ord('a') returns the integer 97, ord(u'\u2020') returns 8224. This is the inverse of chr() for 8-bit strings and of unichr() for unicode objects. If a unicode argument is given and Python was built with UCS2 Unicode, then the character’s code point must be in the range [0..65535] inclusive; otherwise the string length is two, and a TypeError will be raised.

raw_input([prompt])

If the prompt argument is present, it is written to standard output without a trailing newline. The function then reads a line from input, converts it to a string (stripping a trailing newline), and returns that. When EOF is read, EOFError is raised. Example:

>>> s = raw_input('--> ')
--> Monty Python's Flying Circus
>>> s
"Monty Python's Flying Circus"

If the readline module was loaded, then raw_input() will use it to provide elaborate line editing and history features.

repr(object)

Return a string containing a printable representation of an object. This is the same value yielded by conversions (reverse quotes). It is sometimes useful to be able to access this operation as an ordinary function. 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(), otherwise the representation is a string enclosed in angle brackets that contains the name of the type of the object together with additional information often including the name and address of the object. A class can control what this function returns for its instances by defining a __repr__() method.

reversed(seq)

Return a reverse iterator. seq must be an object which has a __reversed__() method or supports the sequence protocol (the __len__() method and the __getitem__() method with integer arguments starting at 0).

New in version 2.4.

Changed in version 2.6: Added the possibility to write a custom __reversed__() method.

.str([object])

Return a string containing a nicely printable representation of an object. For strings, this returns the string itself. The difference with repr(object) is that str(object) does not always attempt to return a string that is acceptable to eval(); its goal is to return a printable string. If no argument is given, returns the empty string, ''.

For more information on strings see Sequence Types — str, unicode, list, tuple, bytearray, buffer, xrange which describes sequence functionality (strings are sequences), and also the string-specific methods described in the String Methods section. To output formatted strings use template strings or the % operator described in the String Formatting Operations section. In addition see the String Services section. See also unicode().