Accessing Python "topic" docstrings with pydoc

Question

I understand how Python docstrings work and I regularly use pydoc.render_doc to access function docstrings. However, I don't know how to use render_doc to access the help topics, e.g. help("UNARY"). I don't even know where such a docstring would exist. Is there a way to either a) access help topics with pydoc or b) an alternative way to capture the help text in a variable?

help("UNARY")                         # prints help to console
import pydoc
pydoc.help("UNARY")                   # prints help to console
test = pydoc.render_doc("str")        # writes help to variable

test = pydoc.render_doc("UNARY")      # ERROR
pydoc.help("UNARY")                   # prints help to console
test = pydoc.help("UNARY")            # prints help to console, 'test' is empty

Rosy · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-25 06:09:07Z

1

pydoc will work in commandline. Use the below command to generate the html documentation for the python modules in the current location.

C:>python -m pydoc -w sys wrote sys.html

But pydoc command cannot be used for Keywords and topics

Refer https://svn.python.org/projects/sandbox/trunk/setuptools/pydoc.py to know the list of topicss and keywords.

answered Jul 25, 2017 at 6:09

Rosy

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1 Comment

mikeck Over a year ago

This doesn't answer my question. I'm looking for a way to capture the help text in a variable. I don't need a way to get the list of topics and I don't see how running pydoc in the command line helps, especially since you say it can't be used with keywords and topics.

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