Davis is a data visualizer for Python. The goal is to make something better and easier to use than print() and pprint() for inspecting data structures in Python.

Davis can currently visualize Python data structures, pickled objects and JSON from running Python programs or from files. It shows values, doc strings and the path to the item.

Here's what it looks like:

Davis requires Tkinter and Python v2.7 / v3.x.

To install Tkinter, see: http://tkinter.unpythonic.net/wiki/How_to_install_Tkinter

sudo apt-get install python-tk
sudo pip install davis

sudo apt-get install python3-tk
sudo pip install davis

If you want to use Davis as a system-wide commandline tool and not just as a Python lib, you can copy the davis.py file somewhere in your path. For example:

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fboender/davis/master/davis/davis.py
$ sudo mv davis.py /usr/local/bin/
$ sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/davis.py

As a library for inspecting data in running Python programs:

my_data = {'alist': [{'pos': 0}, {'pos': 1}], 'adict': {'a': 'a string'}}

import davis
davis.vis(my_data)

This will pause the execution of your program at the call to davis.vis() and pop-up a window that lets you inspect my_data.

To inspect all local variables in the current scope:

import davis
davis.vis(locals())

You can also invoke Davis from the command-line to load data from a file:

$ wget -O r_programming.json https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/.json
$ davis.py r_programming.json

$ davis.py user_sync.pickle

Or from STDIN:

$ wget -O - https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/.json | davis.py