[SOLVED] Is there a way to override the print method in Python 3.x?

Is there a way to override the print method in Python 3.x?

Pretty simple question - I have searched but not found an answer to this question.

It might be a bit silly to do this but I was curious if it is possible to hook into the print(*arg, **kwarg) function of python 3.X and override it / add time.sleep(var) at the end of the invoke.

Of course I could just def another method and wrap it with a time.sleep(var) but I was just curious how one would go about overriding the pre-built functions.

Solution

If you want to patch any function globally, e.g. for testing / debugging purposes, the safest way is to use unittest.mock.patch():

def x():
    '''the code under test'''
    print('Hello, world!')

...
from unittest.mock import patch
orig_print = print

with patch('builtins.print') as m:
    def my_print(*args, **kwargs):
        orig_print('PATCHED:', *args, **kwargs)

    m.side_effect = my_print

    x()  # prints 'PATCHED: Hello, world!'

# prints 'Hello, world!', because the patch context is exited
# and the original function is restored: 
x()