Printargs - A debugging helper for argparse

Print a nicely formatted view of an argparse.Namespace object for debugging purposes:

import sys
import argparse
import printargs

def main(args):
    printargs.show(args)
    # do somthing with args

def get_argument_parser():
    p = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    p.add_argument('-f', '--foo', action='store')
    p.add_argument('-b', '--bar', action='store', type=int)
    p.add_argument('-o', '--output', action='store', default=sys.stdout)
    return p

if __name__ == "__main__":
    argument_parser = get_argument_parser()
    args = argument_parser.parse_args()
    main(args)

To use the output for logging or to edit it use the printargs.formatted function, which returns the string instead of printing it:

import sys
import argparse
import printargs

def main(args):
    t = printargs.formatted(args)
    with open('log', 'a') as logfile:
        logfile.write("Test program called with parameters:")
        logfile.write(t)
        logfile.write("\n\n")


def get_argument_parser():
    p = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    p.add_argument('-f', '--foo', action='store')
    p.add_argument('-b', '--bar', action='store', type=int)
    p.add_argument('-o', '--output', action='store', default=sys.stdout)
    return p

if __name__ == "__main__":
    argument_parser = get_argument_parser()
    args = argument_parser.parse_args()
    main(args)

me@machine:~$ pip install printargs

me@machine:~$ git clone https://HenningTimm@bitbucket.org/HenningTimm/printargs.git
me@machine:~$ cd printargs
me@machine:~/printargs$ python setup.py install