How can I get the source code of a Python function?

Question

If the function is from a source file available on the filesystem, then inspect.getsource(foo) might be of help:

If foo is defined as:

def foo(arg1,arg2):         
    #do something with args 
    a = arg1 + arg2         
    return a  

Then:

import inspect
lines = inspect.getsource(foo)
print(lines)

Returns:

def foo(arg1,arg2):         
    #do something with args 
    a = arg1 + arg2         
    return a                

But I believe that if the function is compiled from a string, stream or imported from a compiled file, then you cannot retrieve its source code.

The inspect module has methods for retrieving source code from python objects. Seemingly it only works if the source is located in a file though. If you had that I guess you wouldn't need to get the source from the object.

---

The following tests inspect.getsource(foo) using Python 3.6:

import inspect

def foo(arg1,arg2):
    #do something with args
    a = arg1 + arg2
    return a

source_foo = inspect.getsource(foo)  # foo is normal function
print(source_foo)

source_max = inspect.getsource(max)  # max is a built-in function
print(source_max)

This first prints:

def foo(arg1,arg2):
    #do something with args
    a = arg1 + arg2
    return a

Then fails on inspect.getsource(max) with the following error:

TypeError: <built-in function max> is not a module, class, method, function, traceback, frame, or code object

If you are using IPython, then you need to type "foo??"

In [19]: foo??
Signature: foo(arg1, arg2)
Source:
def foo(arg1,arg2):
    #do something with args
    a = arg1 + arg2
    return a

File:      ~/Desktop/<ipython-input-18-3174e3126506>
Type:      function

dis is your friend if the source code is not available:

>>> import dis
>>> def foo(arg1,arg2):
...     #do something with args
...     a = arg1 + arg2
...     return a
...
>>> dis.dis(foo)
  3           0 LOAD_FAST                0 (arg1)
              3 LOAD_FAST                1 (arg2)
              6 BINARY_ADD
              7 STORE_FAST               2 (a)

  4          10 LOAD_FAST                2 (a)
             13 RETURN_VALUE

While I'd generally agree that inspect is a good answer, I'd disagree that you can't get the source code of objects defined in the interpreter. If you use dill.source.getsource from dill, you can get the source of functions and lambdas, even if they are defined interactively. It also can get the code for from bound or unbound class methods and functions defined in curries... however, you might not be able to compile that code without the enclosing object's code.

>>> from dill.source import getsource
>>> 
>>> def add(x,y):
...   return x+y
... 
>>> squared = lambda x:x**2
>>> 
>>> print getsource(add)
def add(x,y):
  return x+y

>>> print getsource(squared)
squared = lambda x:x**2

>>> 
>>> class Foo(object):
...   def bar(self, x):
...     return x*x+x
... 
>>> f = Foo()
>>> 
>>> print getsource(f.bar)
def bar(self, x):
    return x*x+x

>>> 

To expand on runeh's answer:

>>> def foo(a):
...    x = 2
...    return x + a

>>> import inspect

>>> inspect.getsource(foo)
u'def foo(a):\n    x = 2\n    return x + a\n'

print inspect.getsource(foo)
def foo(a):
   x = 2
   return x + a

EDIT: As pointed out by @0sh this example works using ipython but not plain python. It should be fine in both, however, when importing code from source files.