Check source code of Python Function or Module

Qianjiang Hu
2022-01-01

Python is a popular programming language,being of a large opensource presence with many powerful projects that receives contribution from developers around the world.

However, current developed packages/modules can not always meet the requirement for data analysis or project develping. It is quite common that we need to modify and adatp the current functions/modules into our project. On the other hand, checking the source code can garantee a clear understanding of the function we are using.

Via sys.modules files

Step 1: The module whcih the function belongs to

import scanpy as sc
help(sc.pl.heatmap)

Step 2: The path of the module and function files

import sys
sys.modules['scanpy.plotting._anndata']

Step 3: Check the .py file to get the source code

!cat ~miniconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/scanpy/plotting/_anndata.py

Via functionNama??

sc.pl.heatmap??

Via inspect

import inspect

source = inspect.getsource(func)

import inspect
source=inspect.getsource(sc.pl.heatmap)

Via Pycharm

Ctl(command) + mouseclick on the function name will show the source code