What is the difference between __str__ and __repr__?

Alex Martelli summarized well but, surprisingly, was too succinct. First, let me reiterate the main points in Alex’s post: The default implementation is useless (it’s hard to think of one which wouldn’t be, but yeah) __repr__ goal is to be unambiguous __str__ goal is to be readable Container’s __str__ uses contained objects’ __repr__ Default implementation is useless This is mostly a surprise beca