pformat

pformat is a function in Python's standard library module pprint. It returns a string containing a pretty-printed representation of a Python object, intended for readable display in logs, error messages, or user interfaces. It mirrors the behavior of the helper function pprint, but instead of printing to stdout, pformat returns the formatted string.

pformat formats common Python types such as lists, tuples, dictionaries, sets, and nested containers by inserting line breaks and indentation to improve readability. It accepts several optional parameters that control formatting: indent specifies the number of spaces per nesting level; width sets the target maximum line width; depth limits how many levels of nesting are expanded; compact requests a more compact multi-line representation when possible; sort_dicts controls whether dictionary keys are printed in sorted order.

By default, pformat aims for a readable, multi-line representation, but with very wide containers or when compact is requested, it can produce shorter strings. For objects with a custom __repr__, the formatter may use that representation unless more detailed formatting is applied through other options.

Typical use is to assign the result to a string for inclusion in logs or error messages, for example by calling s = pprint.pformat(data). The module also provides the PrettyPrinter class and the pprint function, which prints directly to a stream rather than returning a string.

See also: the pprint module in Python’s standard library, its related functions such as pprint and the PrettyPrinter class.