I was wondering if this is possible in python.
#module1
def test():
print 'hey'
#module2
import module1
# *Without modifying module1* is there anyway to wrap this in module2 so that I can capture the
# print 'hey' inside a variable? apart from running module1 as a script?
module1.test() # prints to stdout
Thanks!
Yes, you can. You need to take control of sys.stdout
. Something like this:
import sys
stdout_ = sys.stdout #Keep track of the previous value.
sys.stdout = open('myoutputfile.txt', 'w') # Something here that provides a write method.
# calls to print, ie import module1
sys.stdout = stdout_ # restore the previous stdout.
Yes, all you need is to redirect the stdout to a memory buffer that complies with the interface of stdout, you can do it with StringIO. This works for me in 2.7:
import sys
import cStringIO
stdout_ = sys.stdout #Keep track of the previous value.
stream = cStringIO.StringIO()
sys.stdout = stream
print "hello" # Here you can do whatever you want, import module1, call test
sys.stdout = stdout_ # restore the previous stdout.
variable = stream.getvalue() # This will get the "hello" string inside the variable
For Python 3:
# redirect sys.stdout to a buffer
import sys, io
stdout = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = io.StringIO()
# call module that calls print()
import module1
module1.test()
# get output and restore sys.stdout
output = sys.stdout.getvalue()
sys.stdout = stdout
print(output)