IIRC I named it after the `DIR` command in DOS.

It gives you a **dir**ectory of all attributes of an object. 

This is not a directory as used in file systems, but the standard usage: a listing of names or data.

You&#39;re retrieving a &quot;directory&quot;, a list of all of the stuff that&#39;s available in some resource.

&gt; This answer will be most useful to those new to Python.

I am learning Python and just this morning was thinking about the builtin constants and functions that are available in the language.

I find it interesting that you only have to remember three things:

&gt;   There is a &#39;special&#39; builtin function *dir()*.
&gt; 
&gt;   There is a &#39;system variable&#39; `__builtins__`.
&gt; 
&gt;   *dir(`__builtins__`)* outputs a view of &#39;Python&#39;s builtin world&#39;.

So what does *dir* mean? I&#39;ve settled on this for now:

**dir**ections: supplies maps for traversing the Python Landscape.

See also:

[dir(): Display a namespace&#39;s names][1]

So if you want, you could also let dir stand for

*display inside rubric*



  [1]: https://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/python/web/dir-function.html

I&#39;ve only found rather complicated answers involving classes, event handlers and callbacks (which seem to me to be a somewhat sledgehammer approach). I think callbacks may be useful but I cant seem to apply these in the simplest context. See this example:

    &lt;html&gt;
      &lt;head&gt;
        &lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;&gt;
          function myfunction()  {
            longfunctionfirst();
            shortfunctionsecond();
          }
      
          function longfunctionfirst() {
            setTimeout(&#39;alert(&quot;first function finished&quot;);&#39;,3000);
          }

          function shortfunctionsecond() {
            setTimeout(&#39;alert(&quot;second function finished&quot;);&#39;,200);
          }
        &lt;/script&gt;
      &lt;/head&gt;
      &lt;body&gt;
        &lt;a href=&quot;#&quot; onclick=&quot;javascript:myfunction();return false;&quot;&gt;Call my function&lt;/a&gt;
      &lt;/body&gt;
    &lt;/html&gt;

In this, the second function completes before the first function; what is the simplest way (or is there one?) to force the second function to delay execution until the first function is complete?

---Edit---

So that was a rubbish example but thanks to David Hedlund I see with this new example that it is indeed synchronous (along with crashing my browser in the test process!):

    &lt;html&gt;
    &lt;head&gt;
    
    &lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;&gt;
    function myfunction() {
        longfunctionfirst();
        shortfunctionsecond();
    }

    function longfunctionfirst() {
        var j = 10000;
        for (var i=0; i&lt;j; i++) {
            document.body.innerHTML += i;
        }
        alert(&quot;first function finished&quot;);
    }

    function shortfunctionsecond() {
        var j = 10;
        for (var i=0; i&lt;j; i++) {
            document.body.innerHTML += i;
        }
        alert(&quot;second function finished&quot;);
    }
    &lt;/script&gt;
    
    &lt;/head&gt;
    
    &lt;body&gt;
      &lt;a href=&quot;#&quot; onclick=&quot;javascript:myfunction();return false;&quot;&gt;Call my function&lt;/a&gt;
    &lt;/body&gt;
    &lt;/html&gt;

As my ACTUAL issue was with jQuery and IE I will have to post a separate question about that if I can&#39;t get anywhere myself!

How to force Sequential Javascript Execution?

Given a function that takes a variable number of arguments, e.g.

    def foo(os: String*) =
      println(os.toList)

How can I pass a sequence of arguments to the function? I would like to write:

    val args = Seq(&quot;hi&quot;, &quot;there&quot;)
    foo(args)

Obviously, this does not work.

Scala: pass Seq to var-args functions

In Python there is a built-in function called `dir`.  This is used to get a list of all the attributes for an object.

I understand what it does, but I am confused about why it is called `dir`.  How is this name related to getting the attributes from an object?

Why is &#39;dir()&#39; named &#39;dir&#39; in python?

<p>In Python there is a built-in function called <code>dir</code>.  This is used to get a list of all the attributes for an object.</p>
<p>I understand what it does, but I am confused about why it is called <code>dir</code>.  How is this name related to getting the attributes from an object?</p>


&gt; **Possible Duplicate:**  
&gt; [How do I determine if my python shell is executing in 32bit or 64bit mode?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1405913/how-do-i-determine-if-my-python-shell-is-executing-in-32bit-or-64bit-mode)  

&lt;!-- End of automatically inserted text --&gt;

I&#39;m doing some work with the windows registry. Depending on whether you&#39;re running python as 32-bit or 64-bit, the key value will be different. How do I detect if Python is running as a 64-bit application as opposed to a 32-bit application?

Note: I&#39;m not interested in detecting 32-bit/64-bit Windows - just the Python platform.

How do I detect if Python is running as a 64-bit application?

I&#39;m using Python 3.1, if that helps.

Anyways, I&#39;m trying to get the contents of [this][1] webpage. I Googled for a little bit and tried different things, but they didn&#39;t work. I&#39;m guessing that this should be an easy task, but...I can&#39;t get it. :/.


  [1]:http://services.runescape.com/m=hiscore/ranking?table=0&amp;category_type=0&amp;time_filter=0&amp;date=1519066080774&amp;user=zezima

Results of urllib, urllib2:

    &gt;&gt;&gt; import urllib2
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File &quot;&lt;pyshell#0&gt;&quot;, line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
        import urllib2
    ImportError: No module named urllib2
    &gt;&gt;&gt; import urllib
    &gt;&gt;&gt; urllib.urlopen(&quot;http://www.python.org&quot;)
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File &quot;&lt;pyshell#2&gt;&quot;, line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
        urllib.urlopen(&quot;http://www.python.org&quot;)
    AttributeError: &#39;module&#39; object has no attribute &#39;urlopen&#39;
    &gt;&gt;&gt; 


Python 3 solution
============

Thank you, Jason. :D.

    import urllib.request
    page = urllib.request.urlopen(&#39;http://services.runescape.com/m=hiscore/ranking?table=0&amp;category_type=0&amp;time_filter=0&amp;date=1519066080774&amp;user=zezima&#39;)
    print(page.read())



Get webpage contents with Python?

I&#39;m looking for a PDF library which will allow me to extract the text from a PDF document. I&#39;ve looked at PyPDF, and this can extract the text from a PDF document very nicely. The problem with this is that if there are tables in the document, the text in the tables is extracted in-line with the rest of the document text. This can be problematic because it produces sections of text that aren&#39;t useful and look garbled (for instance, lots of numbers mashed together).

I&#39;d like to extract the text from a PDF document, *excluding* any tables and special formatting. Is there a library out there that does this? 

PDF Parsing Using Python - extracting formatted and plain texts

In the book _Python in a Nutshell (2nd Edition)_ there is an example which uses  
old style classes to demonstrate how methods are resolved in classic resolution order and  
how is it different with the new order. 

I tried the same example by rewriting the example in new style but the result is no different than what was obtained with old style classes. The python version I am using to run the example is **2.5.2.** Below is the example: 

    class Base1(object):  
        def amethod(self): print &quot;Base1&quot;  
    
    class Base2(Base1):  
        pass
    
    class Base3(object):  
        def amethod(self): print &quot;Base3&quot;
    
    class Derived(Base2,Base3):  
        pass
    
    instance = Derived()  
    instance.amethod()  
    print Derived.__mro__  

The call `instance.amethod()` prints **`Base1`**, but as per my understanding of the MRO with new style of classes the output should have been **`Base3`**. The call `Derived.__mro__` prints:      

`(&lt;class &#39;__main__.Derived&#39;&gt;, &lt;class &#39;__main__.Base2&#39;&gt;, &lt;class &#39;__main__.Base1&#39;&gt;, &lt;class &#39;__main__.Base3&#39;&gt;, &lt;type &#39;object&#39;&gt;)`

I am not sure if my understanding of MRO with new style classes is incorrect or that I am doing a silly mistake which I am not able to detect. Please help me in better understanding of MRO.


Method Resolution Order (MRO) in new-style classes?

I&#39;m getting started with Python (it&#39;s high time I give it a shot), and I&#39;m looking for some best practices.

My first project is a queue which runs command-line experiments in multiple threads. I&#39;m starting to get a very long `main.py` file, and I&#39;d like to break it up. In general, I&#39;m looking for: **How do python programmers organize multiple source files?** Is there a particular structure that works for you?

My specific questions include:

 1. Should each class be in a separate file?
 2. How should I organize unit tests relative to source code?
 3. Where should I put doc comments, specifically those for command-line operation?
 4. If I use multiple directories, how do I import classes between them?

I can probably draw some of my own conclusions here by trial and error, but I&#39;d rather start from something _good_.

How should I organize Python source code?

When looping recursively through folders with files containing spaces the shell script I use is of this form, copied from the [internet][1]:

        while IFS= read -r -d $&#39;\0&#39; file; do
          dosomethingwith &quot;$file&quot;        # do something with each file
        done &lt; &lt;(find /bar -name *foo* -print0)

I think I understand the IFS bit, but I don&#39;t understand what the &#39;`&lt; &lt;(...)`&#39; characters mean. Obviously there&#39;s some sort of piping going on here.

It&#39;s very hard to Google &quot;&lt; &lt;&quot; or &quot;&lt;(&quot;, you see. I tried &quot;angle bracket parenthesis&quot; and &quot;less-than parenthesis&quot; but didn&#39;t find anything.



  [1]: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/020

What does &quot;&lt; &lt;(command args)&quot; mean in the shell?

I tried to find a built-in for geometric mean but couldn&#39;t.

(Obviously a built-in isn&#39;t going to save me any time while working in the shell, nor do I suspect there&#39;s any difference in accuracy; for scripts I try to use built-ins as often as possible, where the (cumulative) performance gain is often noticeable.

In case there isn&#39;t one (which I doubt is the case) here&#39;s mine. 


    gm_mean = function(a){prod(a)^(1/length(a))}

Geometric Mean: is there a built-in?

... the `is` keyword that can be used for equality in strings.

    &gt;&gt;&gt; s = &#39;str&#39;
    &gt;&gt;&gt; s is &#39;str&#39;
    True
    &gt;&gt;&gt; s is &#39;st&#39;
    False

I tried both `__is__()` and `__eq__()` but they didn&#39;t work.

    &gt;&gt;&gt; class MyString:
    ...   def __init__(self):
    ...     self.s = &#39;string&#39;
    ...   def __is__(self, s):
    ...     return self.s == s
    ...
    &gt;&gt;&gt;
    &gt;&gt;&gt;
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m = MyString()
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m is &#39;ss&#39;
    False
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m is &#39;string&#39; # &lt;--- Expected to work
    False
    &gt;&gt;&gt;
    &gt;&gt;&gt; class MyString:
    ...   def __init__(self):
    ...     self.s = &#39;string&#39;
    ...   def __eq__(self, s):
    ...     return self.s == s
    ...
    &gt;&gt;&gt;
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m = MyString()
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m is &#39;ss&#39;
    False
    &gt;&gt;&gt; m is &#39;string&#39; # &lt;--- Expected to work, but again failed
    False
    &gt;&gt;&gt;

How is the &#39;is&#39; keyword implemented in Python?

How to find if a value exists in an array and then remove it? After removing I need the sequential index order.

Are there any PHP built-in array functions for doing this? 

How to find a value in an array and remove it by using PHP array functions?

What is the purpose of a command that does nothing, being little more than a comment leader, but is actually a shell builtin in and of itself?

It&#39;s slower than inserting a comment into your scripts by about 40% per call, which probably varies greatly depending on the size of the comment. The only possible reasons I can see for it are these:

    # poor man&#39;s delay function
    for ((x=0;x&lt;100000;++x)) ; do : ; done

    # inserting comments into string of commands
    command ; command ; : we need a comment in here for some reason ; command

    # an alias for `true&#39;
    while : ; do command ; done

I guess what I&#39;m really looking for is what historical application it might have had.

What is the purpose of the : (colon) GNU Bash builtin?

when I write Python code from the interpreter I can type `dir()` to have a list of names defined in the current scope. How can achieve to have the same information, programmatically, when I develop Javascript code from a browser using an interactive console like firebug, chrome console, etc?


Equivalent of Python&#39;s dir in Javascript

Here&#39;s my .rb file:

    puts &quot;Renaming files...&quot;
    
    folder_path = &quot;/home/papuccino1/Desktop/Test&quot;
    Dir.glob(folder_path + &quot;/*&quot;).sort.each do |f|
    	filename = File.basename(f, File.extname(f))
    	File.rename(f, filename.capitalize + File.extname(f))
    end
    
    puts &quot;Renaming complete.&quot;

The files are moved from their initial directory to where the .rb file is located. I&#39;d like to rename the files on the spot, without moving them.

Any suggestions on what to do?



How to rename a file in Ruby?

I want to use ls in windows command prompt and make it run the dir command.

How can I do that?

How to create ls in windows command prompt?

I tried searching for a command that could list all the file in a directory as well as subfolders using a command prompt command.
I have read the help for &quot;dir&quot; command but coudn&#39;t find what I was looking for.
Please help me what command could get this.



Command to list all files in a folder as well as sub-folders in windows

I&#39;ve been searching for the accurate answer to this question for a couple of days now but haven&#39;t got anything good. I&#39;m not a complete beginner in programming, but not yet even on the intermediate level.

When I&#39;m in the shell of Python, I type: `dir()` and I can see all the names of all the objects in the current scope (main block), there are 6 of them:

    [&#39;__builtins__&#39;, &#39;__doc__&#39;, &#39;__loader__&#39;, &#39;__name__&#39;, &#39;__package__&#39;, &#39;__spec__&#39;]

Then, when I&#39;m declaring a variable, for example `x = 10`, it automatically adds to that lists of objects under built-in module `dir()`, and when I type `dir()` again, it shows now:

    [&#39;__builtins__&#39;, &#39;__doc__&#39;, &#39;__loader__&#39;, &#39;__name__&#39;, &#39;__package__&#39;, &#39;__spec__&#39;, &#39;x&#39;]

The same goes for functions, classes and so on.  

How do I delete all those new objects without erasing the standard 6 which where available at the beginning?

I&#39;ve read here about &quot;memory cleaning&quot;, &quot;cleaning of the console&quot;, which erases all the text from the command prompt window:  

    &gt;&gt;&gt; import sys
    &gt;&gt;&gt; clear = lambda: os.system(&#39;cls&#39;)
    &gt;&gt;&gt; clear()

But all this has nothing to do with what I&#39;m trying to achieve, it doesn&#39;t clean out all used objects.


Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	TM.	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Python	Guido van Rossum	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Python	interjay	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Python	Jonathan Feinberg	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Python	CopyPasteIt	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Why is 'dir()' named 'dir' in python?

Python Problem Overview

Python Solutions

Solution 1 - Python

Solution 2 - Python

Solution 3 - Python

Solution 4 - Python

Scala: pass Seq to var-args functions

How to force Sequential Javascript Execution?

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