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Getting help through Spyder

Auto-complete in python

Where we left off in the last tutorial, we saw how to list all available properties and methods on an object. We did this by typing the object name plus a period (ex: nacl_structure.) and then hitting tab:

from simmate.toolkit import Structure

nacl_structure = Structure.from_file("POSCAR")

nacl_structure.  # hit "tab" on your keyboard

Warning

for this next part, pymatgen's documentation isn't always complete or beginner-friendly. This is why you won't see much. We're working on this at Simmate, so we hope this improves in the future. For now, don't expect too much guidance from the Structure class.

Searching for a method's guides

Now let's take a step back and get a full guide on a these methods and properties. We'll start with the Structure class that we previously imported using from simmate.toolkit import Structure and try the line Structure?:

from simmate.toolkit import Structure

Structure?  # <-- the ? here will bring up documentation help

What pops up is the documentation. Just like how we were using --help in the command-line for tutorial 1, we can use ? in python to get help with python classes and objects!

We can also format this nicely using Spyder. In bottom part of Spyder's top-right window, select the help tab. And in the search bar (with "object") right next to it, type in Structure. You'll see the help information pop up again, but now it's nicely formatted for us.

Let's try this with our NaCl structure from before. Now try typing nacl_structure.get_primitive_structure in our help window. We can now see a description of what this does and the arguments/options ("Args") that it accepts.

You can also get this help information by typing nacl_structure.get_primitive_structure in the python terminal and then using the ctrl+I shortcut.

nacl_structure.get_primitive_structure  # hit "ctrl+I" BEFORE hitting enter on this line

Tip

If the documentation is too short and not what you're looking for, chances are that we have more guides in the "Full Guides & Reference" section