Python in a Nutshell

Name

getargvalues, formatargvalues

Synopsis

getargvalues(f)

f is a frame object, for example the result of a call to the function _getframe in module sys (covered in Chapter 8) or to function currentframe in module inspect. getargvalues returns a tuple with four items ( arg_names, extra_args, extra_kwds, locals ). arg_names is the sequence of names of f’s function’s formal arguments. extra_args is the name of the special formal argument of form * args, or None if f’s function has no such special argument. extra_kwds is the name of the special formal argument of form ** kwds, or None if f’s function has no such special argument. locals is the dictionary of local variables for f. Since arguments, in particular, are local variables, the value of each actual argument can be obtained from locals by indexing the locals dictionary with the argument’s name.

formatargvalues accepts one to four arguments that are the same as the items of the tuple that getargvalues returns, and returns a formatted string that displays this information. formatargvalues(*getargvalues( f )) returns a formatted string with f’s actual arguments in parentheses, in named (keyword) form, as used in the call statement that created f. For example:

def f(x=23): return inspect.currentframe( )
print inspect.formatargvalues(inspect.getargvalues(f( )))  
# prints: (x=23)