help()

The help() displays documentation about various Python objects including modules, functions, classes, and keywords. If no argument is passed, the interactive help utility starts up on the command line.

Syntax

help(object)

When an object parameter is not passed to the help() function, the interactive help utility will be started.

If the object is a string that matches a valid module, function, class, keyword, or other topic, a documentation page will be displayed. For other kinds of objects (like a tuple), the help() function will show its documentation page as well.

Example

Calling the help() function without an argument, the following output is returned:

Welcome to Python 3's help utility!

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the internet at https://docs.python.org/3.10/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, symbols, or topics, type
"modules", "keywords", "symbols", or "topics".  Each module also comes
with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose name
or summary contain a given string such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help>

The following shows how the help() function provides information about Python’s built-in print() function:

help(print)

This produces the following output:

print(...)
   print(value, ..., sep=' ', end='\n', file=sys.stdout, flush=False)

   Prints the values to a stream, or to sys.stdout by default.
   Optional keyword arguments:
   file:  a file-like object (stream); defaults to the current sys.stdout.
   sep:   string inserted between values, default a space.
   end:   string appended after the last value, default a newline.
   flush: whether to forcibly flush the stream.

Codebyte Example

The following example is runnable and shows how the help() function can be applied to different kinds of objects, including user-defined classes:

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