Hy representations

New in version 0.13.0.

hy.contrib.hy-repr is a module containing two functions. To import them, say:

(import [hy.contrib.hy-repr [hy-repr hy-repr-register]])

To make the Hy REPL use it for output, invoke Hy like so:

$ hy --repl-output-fn=hy.contrib.hy-repr.hy-repr

hy-repr

Usage: (hy-repr x)

This function is Hy’s equivalent of Python’s built-in repr. It returns a string representing the input object in Hy syntax.

=> (hy-repr [1 2 3])
'[1 2 3]'
=> (repr [1 2 3])
'[1, 2, 3]'

Like repr in Python, hy-repr can round-trip many kinds of values. Round-tripping implies that given an object x, (eval (read-str (hy-repr x))) returns x, or at least a value that’s equal to x.

hy-repr-register

Usage: (hy-repr-register the-type fun)

hy-repr-register lets you set the function that hy-repr calls to represent a type.

=> (defclass C)
=> (hy-repr-register C (fn [x] "cuddles"))
=> (hy-repr [1 (C) 2])
'[1 cuddles 2]'

If the type of an object passed to hy-repr doesn’t have a registered function, hy-repr will search the type’s method resolution order (its __mro__ attribute) for the first type that does. If hy-repr doesn’t find a candidate, it falls back on repr.

Registered functions often call hy-repr themselves. hy-repr will automatically detect self-references, even deeply nested ones, and output "..." for them instead of calling the usual registered function. To use a placeholder other than "...", pass a string of your choice to the keyword argument :placeholder of hy-repr-register.

(defclass Container [object]
  (defn __init__ (fn [self value]
    (setv self.value value))))
(hy-repr-register Container :placeholder "HY THERE" (fn [x]
  (+ "(Container " (hy-repr x.value) ")")))
(setv container (Container 5))
(setv container.value container)
(print (hy-repr container))  ; Prints "(Container HY THERE)"