How do I access the command history from IDLE?

python python-idle
nonopolarity picture nonopolarity · Jun 28, 2010 · Viewed 70.8k times · Source

On bash or Window's Command Prompt, we can press the up arrow on keyboard to get the last command, and edit it, and press ENTER again to see the result.

But in Python's IDLE 2.6.5 or 3.1.2, it seems if our statement prints out 25 lines, we need to press the up arrow 25 times to that last command, and press ENTER for it to be copied?

Or use the mouse to pinpoint that line and click there, and press ENTER to copy? Is there a faster way?

Answer

shylent picture shylent · Jun 28, 2010
  • I think you are looking for the history-previous action, which is bound to Alt+P by default.
  • You can remap it in "Options -> Configure IDLE -> Keys"
  • You can also access this command from the top menu in IDLE: "Shell -> Previous History"

Incidentally, why don't you try a better (less ugly, for starters) shell like bpython or ipython?

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