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<title>6.6 The print statement
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<H1><A NAME=
"SECTION008600000000000000000"></A><A NAME=
"print"></A>
6.6 The
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> statement
<a id='l2h-
495' xml:id='l2h-
495'
></a>
<div class=
"productions">
<td><a id='tok-print_stmt' xml:id='tok-print_stmt'
>print_stmt
</a></td>
<td>"print" (
<big>[
</big><a class='grammartoken'
href=
"Booleans.html#tok-expression">expression
</a> (
"," <a class='grammartoken'
href=
"Booleans.html#tok-expression">expression
</a>)*
<big>[
</big>","<big>]
</big><big>]
</big></td></tr>
<td><code>|
"><code>></code>" <a class='grammartoken'
href=
"Booleans.html#tok-expression">expression
</a>
<big>[
</big>(
"," <a class='grammartoken'
href=
"Booleans.html#tok-expression">expression
</a>)+
<big>[
</big>","<big>]
</big><big>]
</big> )
</code></td></tr>
<a class=
"grammar-footer"
href=
"grammar.txt" type=
"text/plain"
>Download entire grammar as text.
</a>
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> evaluates each expression in turn and writes the
resulting object to standard output (see below). If an object is not
a string, it is first converted to a string using the rules for string
conversions. The (resulting or original) string is then written. A
space is written before each object is (converted and) written, unless
the output system believes it is positioned at the beginning of a
line. This is the case (
1) when no characters have yet been written
to standard output, (
2) when the last character written to standard
output is
"<tt class="character
">\n</tt>", or (
3) when the last write operation on
standard output was not a
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> statement. (In some cases
it may be functional to write an empty string to standard output for
this reason.)
<span class=
"note"><b class=
"label">Note:
</b>
Objects which act like file objects but which are
not the built-in file objects often do not properly emulate this
aspect of the file object's behavior, so it is best not to rely on
<a id='l2h-
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503'
></a>
<a id='l2h-
496' xml:id='l2h-
496'
></a>
A
"<tt class="character
">\n</tt>" character is written at the end, unless the
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> statement ends with a comma. This is the only action
if the statement contains just the keyword
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt>.
<a id='l2h-
497' xml:id='l2h-
497'
></a><a id='l2h-
498' xml:id='l2h-
498'
></a>
Standard output is defined as the file object named
<code>stdout
</code>
in the built-in module
<tt class=
"module">sys
</tt>. If no such object exists, or if
it does not have a
<tt class=
"method">write()
</tt> method, a
<tt class=
"exception">RuntimeError
</tt>
<a id='l2h-
499' xml:id='l2h-
499'
></a><a id='l2h-
504' xml:id='l2h-
504'
></a>
<a id='l2h-
501' xml:id='l2h-
501'
></a><a id='l2h-
502' xml:id='l2h-
502'
></a>
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> also has an extended
<a id='l2h-
505' xml:id='l2h-
505'
></a>
form, defined by the second portion of the syntax described above.
This form is sometimes referred to as ``
<tt class=
"keyword">print
</tt> chevron.''
In this form, the first expression after the
<code>></code><code>></code> must
evaluate to a ``file-like'' object, specifically an object that has a
<tt class=
"method">write()
</tt> method as described above. With this extended form,
the subsequent expressions are printed to this file object. If the
first expression evaluates to
<code>None
</code>, then
<code>sys.stdout
</code> is
used as the file for output.
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<span class=
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2.4.2, documentation updated on
28 September
2005.
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