Python printing function gets unexpected output at interpreter?

Question

I have the following in a file named seta.py:

def print_name():
    print "hello"

I am doing the following from the interpreter:

import seta

and then

seta.print_name

I would expect the output to be "hello" but it is as follows:

<function print_name at 0x7faffa1585f0>

What am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

To call a function you need to add ():

seta.print_name()

Otherwise it'll print the str/repr version of that function object.

Demo:

def func():
    print "Hello, World!"
>>> func                         #Returns the repr version of function object
<function func at 0xb743cb54>
>>> repr(func)
'<function func at 0xb743cb54>'
>>> print func                   #Equivalent to `print str(func)`
<function func at 0xb743cb54>

>>> func()                       #Eureka!
Hello, World!