python console tab completion not working in windows

Question

running Windows 10

From what I understand python3 has tab completion in the python console already built in but this isn't working for me.

When I hit tab there is no completion:

Im aware there are modules that can do this, but I'd like to use the native feature if it is available to me on windows.

did you try hitting the tab twice? Usually, it will give you list of available commands — yash, Oct 26 '17 at 01:01

score 60 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 12 '20 at 20:36

60

The builtin completion relies on the GNU readline library.

You may be able to get completion working by installing the python version (pyreadline) of this package on Windows.

python -m pip install pyreadline

edited Nov 12 '20 at 20:36

not2qubit

14,531
8
95
135

answered Oct 26 '17 at 01:02

John La Rooy

295,403
53
369
502

8

Don't understand why this is not part of the site-package for Windows then, license issue? – kakyo Jun 13 '19 at 06:41
3

Fixes the issue but I can't insert tabs anymore. Not even for running a simple `for` loop – Rochak Agrawal Mar 04 '20 at 19:02
1

I came here looking for a solution that works with the cmd module on windows 10. pyreadline works well with the cmd module in powershell (although Rochak is correct about tabs), but it's really clumsy to use in git bash and just buggy in interactive mode (python -i). The package also doesn't seem to have been updated in a long time. – DavidW Nov 27 '20 at 09:23
2

@DavidW: Answering why the "package also doesn't seem to have been updated in a long time": `pyreadline` was initially developed to support IPython (which used it through the 4.x releases). But as of IPython 5.0, they moved to using `prompt_toolkit` (which is much more full-featured and platform independent), and it's pretty clear that once they made that decision, they stopped updating `pyreadline` (`pyreadline` was last updated in September, 2015, a month after IPython 4.0 released; IPython 5.0 released nine months later). – ShadowRanger Mar 30 '21 at 16:42

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 12 '23 at 16:32

23

The original pyreadline is no longer maintained and doesn't work on newer versions of Python (>=3.10). Installing pyreadline3 works:

python -m pip install pyreadline3

edited Feb 12 '23 at 16:32

Epic Wink

796
13
18

answered Feb 19 '22 at 15:06

Elad

633
5
13

1

This is the most up to date! Worked! – kyrlon Feb 22 '23 at 18:21
adding `pyreadline3; sys_platform == "win32"` to my requirements.txt file was great when dealing with multiple different OS. – kyrlon Feb 22 '23 at 18:37

ShadowRanger · Answer 3 · 2021-03-30T16:47:56.280

I'd discourage use of pyreadline where possible, as it was written to support IPython, and stopped active development when IPython stopped using readline/pyreadline to support their REPL.

As an alternative, I'd suggest IPython itself; it implements their own tab-completion features (using prompt_toolkit as of 5.0) that work in a terminal agnostic fashion. If you install and use ipython, you'll get tab completion and the host of other features it provides to improve the interactive experience. Using the py.exe manager application bundled with modern Python, install it for Python 3 (in an admin elevated command prompt if Python installed for all users) with:

py -3 -mpip install ipython

then to run it:

py -3 -mIPython

If you don't want the whole of ipython just to get these features, the prompt_toolkit folks do provide a minimalist ptpython REPL that is basically "Python with a REPL provided by prompt_toolkit" without all the other IPython bells and whistles.

`pyreadline` still seems to work for Python 3.9. Is your objection to it pragmatic or ideological? — Craig McQueen, Apr 09 '21 at 03:11
@CraigMcQueen: `pyreadline` is attempting to emulate `readline` and it does the job just barely well enough to make IPython "not the worst". It's been ages since I used it on Windows, but I remember finding it incredibly frustrating when little things didn't work quite the way they did on a native `readline` system (basically always for the worse). The switch to `prompt_toolkit` was a major improvement. — ShadowRanger, Apr 09 '21 at 10:07

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 12 '20 at 20:26

1

Installing following packages should fix this on both python CLI and pyspark shell.

pip install pyreadline
pip install ipython

edited Nov 12 '20 at 20:26

not2qubit

14,531
8
95
135

answered Sep 26 '19 at 05:38

Jayant Kumar

51
2

I used `pyreadline3` instead of `pyreadline`, as the latter is deprecated. I have installed python for WIndows 10 64 bit, run it from powershell, and this fixed to auto-complete. – PfunnyGuy May 11 '23 at 20:06

Soup Endless · Answer 5 · 2021-03-27T17:35:19.977

For Windows consider to use free Visual Studio Community as Python IDE - it has all autocomplete features out of the box for Python shell (Python Interactive Window) you will likely need: for modules, methods, etc.

In below example I've imported my DiveIntoPython.py, once I did it, the name of the module is now into autocomplete suggestions.

If you want to add your own modules paths automatically you should utilize built-in site module as described by odjo: https://stackoverflow.com/a/59411635/2170898 -> just create sitecustomize.py file inside site.USER_SITE dir with this content (don't forget to change actual path):

import site
site.addsitedir(r'C:\My_Projects')

python console tab completion not working in windows

5 Answers5