behold 0.1.0

UNKNOWN

Behold
===
Behold is a package that let's you perform contextual debugging. It enables you
to use the state inside a particular module to either trigger a step debugger or
trigger print statements in a completely different module. Given the stateful
nature of many large, multi-file applications (I'm looking at you, Django), this
capability provides valuable control over your debugging work flow.

Behold is written in pure Python with no dependencies. It is compatible with
both Python2 and Python3.

Installation
---
```bash
pip install behold
```

Table of Context
---

* [Simple print-style debugging](#simple-print-style-debugging)
* [Conditional printing](#conditional-printing)
* [Tagged printing and exclusion](#tagged-printing-and-exclusion)
* [Contextual debugging](#contextual-debugging)
* [Triggering entry point for step debugger](#triggering-entry-point-for-step-debugger)
* [Printing object attributes](#printing-object-attributes)
* [Printing global variables and nested attributes](#printing-global-variables-and-nested-attributes)
* [Stashing results](#stashing-results)
* [Custom attribute extraction](#custom-attribute-extraction)


Simple Print-Style Debugging
---
Behold provides a uniform look to your print-style debugging statements.
```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold

letters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

for index, letter in enumerate(letters):
# The following line is equivalent to
# print('index: {}, letter: {}'.format(index, letter))
Behold().show('index', 'letter')
```
Output:
```
index: 0, letter: a
index: 1, letter: b
index: 2, letter: c
index: 3, letter: d
index: 4, letter: A
index: 5, letter: B
index: 6, letter: C
index: 7, letter: D
```

Conditional Printing
---
You can filter your debugging statements based on scope variables.
```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold

letters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

for index, letter in enumerate(letters):
# The following line is equivalent to
# if letter.upper() == letter and index % 2 == 0:
# print('index: {}'.format(index))
Behold().when(letter.upper() == letter and index % 2 == 0).show('index')
```
Output:
```
index: 4
index: 6
```

Tagged Printing And Exclusion
---
Each instance of a behold object can be tagged to produce distinguishable output
```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold

letters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

for index, letter in enumerate(letters):
# The following two lines of code are equivalent to
# if letter.upper() == letter and index % 2 == 0:
# print('index: {}, letter:, {}, even_uppercase'.format(index, letter))
# if letter.upper() != letter and index % 2 != 0:
# print('index: {}, letter: {} odd_lowercase'.format(index, letter))
Behold(tag='even_uppercase').when(letter.upper() == letter and index % 2 == 0).show('index', 'letter')

# Notice that when() and exclude() methods are chainable
Behold(tag='odd_lowercase').when(letter.upper() != letter).excluding(index % 2 == 0).show('index', 'letter')
```
Output:
```
index: 1, letter: b, odd_lowercase
index: 3, letter: d, odd_lowercase
index: 4, letter: A, even_uppercase
index: 6, letter: C, even_uppercase
```

Contextual Debugging
---
Let's say you have a complicated code base consisting of many files spread over
many directories. In the course of chasing down bugs, you may want to print out
what is going on inside a particular function. But you only want the printing to
happen when that function is called from some other function defined in a
completely different file. Situations like this frequently arise in Django web
projects where the code can be spread across multiple apps. This is the use
case where Behold really shines. Here is an example.

```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold, in_context

def reusable_function_in_one_module():
letters = ['a', 'b']

for index, letter in enumerate(letters):
# this will only get called when the context is 'my_first_context_tag'
Behold(tag='called_in_first').when_context(
my_label='my_first_context_tag').show('index', 'letter')

# this will only get called when the context is 'my_second_context_tag'
Behold(tag='called_in_second').when_context(
my_label='my_second_context_tag').show('index', 'letter')

# this will get called in either context (notice Django-like syntax)
Behold(tag='called_in_either').when_context(
my_label__in=['my_first_context_tag', 'my_second_context_tag']
).show('index', 'letter')

# Although not demonstrated here, there is an .excluding_context()
# method. You can chain together multiple .when_context() and
# .excluding_context() methods to further refine control.

# In any other file of a complex application, you can set set the context by
# simply decorating a function. All code executed from this function will
# be in the specified context.
@in_context(my_label='my_first_context_tag')
def this_function_could_be_in_a_different_module_from_a_different_package():
reusable_function_in_one_module()

def this_function_could_be_in_yet_another_module():
# You can also set context using the with statement
with in_context(my_label='my_second_context_tag'):
reusable_function_in_one_module()

print('-' * 35)
this_function_could_be_in_a_different_module_from_a_different_package()
print('-' * 35)
this_function_could_be_in_yet_another_module()
```
Output:
```
-----------------------------------
index: 0, letter: a, called_in_first
index: 0, letter: a, called_in_either
index: 1, letter: b, called_in_first
index: 1, letter: b, called_in_either
-----------------------------------
index: 0, letter: a, called_in_second
index: 0, letter: a, called_in_either
index: 1, letter: b, called_in_second
index: 1, letter: b, called_in_either
```

Triggering Entry Point For Step Debugger
---
The `.show()` method of a behold object will return `True` if all filtering
criteria are met. Otherwise it will return `False`. You can use this behavior
to drop into a step debugger when in the proper context.

```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold, in_context


with in_context(what='testing'):
for nn in range(5):
# Setting auto=False means that the show() method will not automatically
# print to the console. In this example the behold object only evaluates
# to True when in the proper context and when it passes filters. When
# this happens, we drop into the debugger.
if Behold(auto=False).when_context(what='testing').when(nn>2).show('mm'):
# Drop into your python debugger of choice
import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
mm = 2 * nn
```

Printing Object Attributes
---
Up to this point, we have only called the `.show()` method with string arguments
holding names of local variables. What if we wanted to show attributes of some
object in our code? This example shows how to do that.

```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold

# This is a simple class whos attributes are set from kwargs
class Item(object):
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
for k, v in kwargs.items():
setattr(self, k, v)

# Define an item with three attributes.
item = Item(a=1, b=2, c=3)

# The show() method will accept up to one non-string argument. If it detects that
# that a non-string argument has been passed, it will call getattr() on the
# non-string variable to display the str representation of the attributes listed
# in the string arguments.
Behold(tag='with_args').show(item, 'a', 'b')

# Calling show with an object and no string arguments defaults to printing all
# attributes in the object's __dict__.
Behold(tag='no_args').show(item)
```
Output:
```
a: 1, b: 2, with_args
a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, no_args
```

Printing Global Variables and Nested Attributes
---
When providing string arguments to the `.show()` method, the default behavior is
to examine the local variables for names matching the strings. Global variables
can not be accessed in this way. Furthermore, if you have classes with nested
attributes, those will also not be accessible with simple string arguments.
This example illustrates how to use `.show()` to access these types of
variables.

```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold

# define a global variable
g = 'global_content'

# define a class that has an attribute that is an object
class Boss(object):
def __init__(self, name, employee):
self.name = name
self.employee = employee
def __str__(self):
return 'BossClass'

# define the attribute object
class Employee(object):
def __init__(self, name):
self.name = name
def __str__(self):
return 'EmployeeClass'

# Now set up nested a nested function to create a closure variable
def example_func():
employee = Employee(name='Toby')
boss = Boss(employee=employee, name='Michael')

print('# Can\'t see global variable')
Behold().show('boss', 'employee', 'g')

print('\n# I can see the the boss\'s name, but not employee name')
Behold('no_employee_name').show(boss)

print('\n# Here is how to show global variables')
Behold().show(global_g=g, boss=boss)

# Or if you don't like the ordering the dict keys give you,
# you can enforce it with the order of some string arguments
print('\n# You can force variable ordering by supplying string arguments')
Behold().show('global_g', 'boss', global_g=g, boss=boss)

print('\n# And a similar strategy for nested attributes')
Behold().show(employee_name=boss.employee.name)

example_func()
```
Output:
```bash
# Can't see global variable
boss: BossClass, employee: EmployeeClass, g: None

# I can see the the boss's name, but not employee name
employee: EmployeeClass, name: Michael, no_employee_name

# Here is how to show global variables
boss: BossClass, global_g: global_content

# You can force variable ordering by supplying string arguments
global_g: global_content, boss: BossClass

# And a similar strategy for nested attributes
employee_name: Toby
```

Stashing Results
---
Behold provides a global stash space where you can store observed values for
later use in a top-level summary. The stash space is global, so you need to
carefully manage it in order not to confuse yourself. Here is an example of
using the stash feature to print summary info. The list of dicts returned by the
`.get_stash()` function was specifically designed to be passed directly to a <a
href="http://pandas.pydata.org/">Pandas</a> Dataframe constructor to help
simplify further analysis.

```python
from __future__ import print_function
from pprint import pprint
from behold import Behold, in_context, get_stash, clear_stash

def my_function():
out = []
for nn in range(5):
x, y, z = nn, 2 * nn, 3 * nn
out.append((x, y, z))

# You must define tags if you want to stash variables. The tag
# names become the keys in the global stash space

# this will only populate when testing x
Behold(tag='test_x').when_context(what='test_x').stash('y', 'z')

# this will only populate when testing y
Behold(tag='test_y').when_context(what='test_y').stash('x', 'z')

# this will only populate when testing z
Behold(tag='test_z').when_context(what='test_z').stash('x', 'y')
return out


@in_context(what='test_x')
def test_x():
assert(sum([t[0] for t in my_function()]) == 10)

@in_context(what='test_y')
def test_y():
assert(sum([t[1] for t in my_function()]) == 20)

@in_context(what='test_z')
def test_z():
assert(sum([t[2] for t in my_function()]) == 30)

test_x()
test_y()
test_z()


print('\n# contents of test_x stash. Notice only y and z as expected')
pprint(get_stash('test_x'))

print('\n# contents of test_y stash. Notice only x and z as expected')
pprint(get_stash('test_y'))

print('\n# contents of test_z stash. Notice only x and y as expected')
pprint(get_stash('test_z'))

# With no arguments, clear_stash will delete all stashes. You can
# select a specific set of stashes to clear by supplying their names.
clear_stash()
```
Output:
```

# contents of test_x stash. Notice only y and z as expected
[{'y': 0, 'z': 0},
{'y': 2, 'z': 3},
{'y': 4, 'z': 6},
{'y': 6, 'z': 9},
{'y': 8, 'z': 12}]

# contents of test_y stash. Notice only x and z as expected
[{'x': 0, 'z': 0},
{'x': 1, 'z': 3},
{'x': 2, 'z': 6},
{'x': 3, 'z': 9},
{'x': 4, 'z': 12}]

# contents of test_z stash. Notice only x and y as expected
[{'x': 0, 'y': 0},
{'x': 1, 'y': 2},
{'x': 2, 'y': 4},
{'x': 3, 'y': 6},
{'x': 4, 'y': 8}]
```

Custom Attribute Extraction
---
When working with database applications, you frequently encounter objects that
are referenced by id numbers. These ids serve as record keys from which you can
extract human-readable information. When you are debugging, it can often get
confusing if your screen dump involves just a bunch of id numbers. What you
would actually like to see is some meaningful name corresponding to that id. By
simply overriding one method of the Behold class, this behavior is quite easy to
implement. This example shows how.
```python
from __future__ import print_function
from behold import Behold


# Define a simple item class that can hold arbitrary attributes
class MyItem(object):
def __init__(self, **kwargs):
for k, v in kwargs.items():
setattr(self, k, v)


# Subclass Behold to enable custom attribute extraction
class CustomBehold(Behold):
@classmethod
def load_state(cls):
# Notice this is a class method so that the loaded state will be
# available to all instances of CustomBehold. A common use case would
# be to load state like this once from a database and then be able to
# reuse it at will without invoking continual database activity. In
# this example, imagine the numbers are database ids and you have
# constructed a mapping from id to some human-readable description.
cls.name_lookup = {
1: 'John',
2: 'Paul',
3: 'George',
4: 'Ringo'
}
cls.instrument_lookup = {
1: 'Rhythm Guitar',
2: 'Bass Guitar',
3: 'Lead Guitar',
4: 'Drums'
}

def extract(self, item, name):
"""
I am overriding the extract() method of the behold class. This method
is responsible for taking an object and turning it into a string. The
default behavior is to simply call str() on the object.
"""
# extract the value from the behold item
val = getattr(item, name)

# If this is a MyItem object, enable name translation
if isinstance(item, MyItem) and name == 'name':
return self.__class__.name_lookup.get(val, None)

# If this is a MyItem object, enable instrument translation
elif isinstance(item, MyItem) and name == 'instrument':
return self.__class__.instrument_lookup.get(val, None)

# otherwise, just call the default extractor
else:
return super(CustomBehold, self).extract(item, name)


# define a list of items where names and instruments are given by id numbers
items = [MyItem(name=nn, instrument=nn) for nn in range(1, 5)]

# load the global state
CustomBehold.load_state()

print('\n# Show items using standard Behold class')
for item in items:
Behold().show(item)


print('\n# Show items using CustomBehold class with specialized extractor')
for item in items:
CustomBehold().show(item, 'name', 'instrument')
```
Output:
```bash
# Show items using standard Behold class
instrument: 1, name: 1
instrument: 2, name: 2
instrument: 3, name: 3
instrument: 4, name: 4

# Show items using CustomBehold class with specialized extractor
name: John, instrument: Rhythm Guitar
name: Paul, instrument: Bass Guitar
name: George, instrument: Lead Guitar
name: Ringo, instrument: Drums
```