Magic commands tips#

In this section some solutions for JupyterLab use for more demanding users.

Get the cell output to use in a variable#

IPython’s output caching system defines several global variables:

  • [_] (a single underscore): stores previous output, like Python’s default interpreter.

  • [__] (two underscores): next previous.

  • [___] (three underscores): next-next previous.

Additionally, after each output x is created, there is a variable _<x> created with the output as its value.

For example:

x= [i for i in range(7)]

x

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

y=_3 #the output of cell 2 , you could use also y=__

y

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12]

y.append(12)

y

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 12]

type(y)

list

Display docstrings#

You can place the ? character before or after (no space allowed) the object you are looking for docs.

Example:

?print


    Docstring:
    print(value, ..., sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)
    
    Prints the values to a stream, or to sys.stdout by default.
    Optional keyword arguments:
    file:  a file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
    sep:   string inserted between values, default a space.
    end:   string appended after the last value, default a newline.
    flush: whether to forcibly flush the stream.
    Type:     builtin_function_or_method

Display source code#

To access the source code simply use ?? instead.

Example to get the source code of the pprint command:


??pprint


source:
    @line_magic
    def pprint(self, parameter_s=''):
        """Toggle pretty printing on/off."""
        ptformatter = self.shell.display_formatter.formatters['text/plain']
        ptformatter.pprint = bool(1 - ptformatter.pprint)
        print('Pretty printing has been turned',
              ['OFF','ON'][ptformatter.pprint])