pdir2: Pretty dir() printing with joy

Build status PyPI Version

Have you ever dreamed of a better output of dir()? I do. So I created this.

Features

Attributes are grouped by types/functionalities, with beautiful colors.
Support color customization, here's how.
Support all platforms including Windows(Thanks to colorama).
Support ipython, ptpython, bpython and Jupyter Notebook! See wiki for details.
The return value of pdir() can still be used as a list of names.
✨ Attribute searching

You can search for certain names with .s() or .search():

Search is case-insensitive by default. search(name, case_sensitive=True) does case-sensitive searching.
:star2: Attribute filtering

properties: Find properties/variables defined in the inspected object.

methods: Find methods/functions defined in the inspected object.

public: Find public attributes.

own: Find attributes that are not inherited from parent classes.

These filters can be chained! Order does NOT matter.

For example, use pdir(obj).public.own.methods to find all public own methods.

You can also call search on the returned results.

See a complete example.

Install

Generic

pip install pdir2

About the name. I wanted to call it "pdir", but there's already one with this name on pypi. Mine is better, of course.

Fedora

dnf install python3-pdir2

Automatic Import

As a better alternative of dir(), it's more convenient to automatically import pdir2 when launching REPL. Luckily, Python provides a way to do this. In you .bashrc(or .zshrc), add this line:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pythonstartup

Then, create .pythonstartup in your home folder. Add one line:

import pdir

Next time you launch REPL, pdir() is already there, Hooray!

Development

Set up development environment
- PDM: pdir2 uses PDM to manage dependencies, so you want to make sure it's installed.
- pyenv: Since you need to test pdir2 on multiple Python versions, pyenv is highly recommended. Make sure you have Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, and 3.14 installed.
Install dev dependencies

Simply run pdm install.

If you want to work on a specific Python version, run pdm use [PYTHON_VERSION] first to switch PDM to that version (e.g. pdm use 3.9 if you want to debug a Python 3.9 specific issue).
Run tests

Run pdm run tox

The guide may be incomplete. Please file bugs if you encounter any issues.

Metadata

Release files for pdir2 1.1.2

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for pdir2 1.1.2
File	Size	Uploaded
pdir2-1.1.2.tar.gz	19.4 kB	Nov 29, 2025	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for pdir2 1.1.2
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
pdir2-1.1.2-py3-none-any.whl 13.5 kB Nov 29, 2025	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 32.9 kB

Release files / pdir2-1.1.2.tar.gz

Download URL	pdir2-1.1.2.tar.gz
Size	19.4 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`34de77cec1250e0f00a1a50c1b9252c2a1a7fe4768b8d31fb95289d9ebdde991`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`53b3168492af4a5265fb1389c9037c0afc2e7c5e5cd11e85b27ca79399700915`
Upload date	Nov 29, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.13.7`

Release files / pdir2-1.1.2-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	pdir2-1.1.2-py3-none-any.whl
Size	13.5 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`e5f18a56e4f5483f6307434bd46f354375d1a8d7327e5786d2dd20b98463b9d5`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`76cc5f939bdb8f06a9e809a71a58a3f07c770f89dc85a3a6a70fce28990cf056`
Upload date	Nov 29, 2025
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.13.7`