Nice print of python Enum

Question

Assume I have the following:

from enum import Enum

class Color(Enum):
    RED = 1
    GREEN = 2
    BLUE = 3

As the output of print(Color), I want to see:

The colors are:
- RED
- GREEN
- BLUE

I've tried:

from enum import Enum

class Color(Enum):
    RED = 1
    GREEN = 2
    BLUE = 3

    @classmethod
    def __str__(self):
        res = "The colors are:\n"
        for g in set(map(lambda c: c.name, Color)):
            res += '- ' + g + '\n'
        return res

But it only works as print(Color(1)). How can I have it working when using print(Color)?

Answer 1

To override printing of the class, you could define __str__ on the metaclass:

from enum import Enum, EnumMeta

class MyEnumMeta(EnumMeta):
    def __str__(cls):
        lines = [f"The {cls.__name__.lower()}s are:"]
        for member in cls:
            lines.append(f"- {member.name}")
        return '\n'.join(lines)

class Color(Enum, metaclass=MyEnumMeta):
    RED = 1
    GREEN = 2
    BLUE = 3

Demo:

>>> Color
<enum 'Color'>
>>> print(Color)
The colors are:
- RED
- GREEN
- BLUE
>>> Color.RED
<Color.RED: 1>
>>> print(Color.RED)
Color.RED

The class name is discovered:

>>> class Animal(Enum, metaclass=MyEnumMeta): 
...     cat = 'meow' 
...     dog = 'woof' 
...     badger = 'grrr' 
...
>>> print(Animal)
The animals are:
- cat
- dog
- badger