# How to get a function to print stuff with REPL-like formatting

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [September 1, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877 "2020-09-01T06:48:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkarikom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkarikom/32/7096_2.png) [@mkarikom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkarikom)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/1 "2020-09-01T06:48:06Z")

</div>

Sometimes it’s easier if what gets printed by a function looks nice (like in the REPL):

```julia
function printout(x)
    println("x is: ",x)
end

```

**Ex 1.** Beautiful formatting that can be instantly read and understood:

```julia
check = rand(2,10)
2×10 Array{Float64,2}:
 0.20608 0.675941 0.267637 0.231587 0.404712 0.628064 0.727315 0.292798 0.579271 0.00830696
 0.570077 0.440174 0.997781 0.842532 0.752924 0.360579 0.368976 0.264956 0.20852 0.166019

```

**Ex. 2.** Printing from inside a function: the first semi-colon is somewhere in there…

```julia
printout(check)
x is: [0.20607999980294323 0.6759405043446565 0.2676368465413639 0.23158728513903615 0.40471156297506106 
0.6280638109428014 0.7273151713873742 0.2927977847045118 0.5792709021856115 0.008306955592047194; 0.5700766059127313 0.4401739651076826 
0.9977809895843064 0.8425324418892446 0.7529240018391419 0.360578553537942 0.3689764314494348 0.26495555789141423 0.20851971242325895 0.1660188215790821]

```

How can I make `printout()` give me output like **Ex. 1**?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sostock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sostock/32/5546_2.png) [@sostock](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sostock)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/2 "2020-09-01T07:22:15Z")

</div>

```julia
printout(x) = show(stdout, MIME"text/plain"(), x)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkarikom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkarikom/32/7096_2.png) [@mkarikom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkarikom)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/3 "2020-09-01T17:17:07Z")

</div>

Thanks @sostock, sorry that my post was unclear. I meant to ask how to print an intermediate value (not the returned value) from inside a function.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkarikom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkarikom/32/7096_2.png) [@mkarikom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkarikom)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/4 "2020-09-01T17:17:35Z")

</div>

This works:

```julia
function printout(x)
    display(x)
end

check = rand(2,10);

printout(check);

2×10 Array{Float64,2}:
 0.571579 0.793269 0.68453 0.732311 0.316721 0.167078 0.521398 0.830209 0.546623 0.852014
 0.98618 0.240232 0.50574 0.282009 0.329084 0.804751 0.044719 0.320697 0.735516 0.254228

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/5 "2020-09-01T17:30:25Z")

</div>

> [@mkarikom](#):
>
> This works:

Not in general. `display` may not output to `stdout`, and may not output plain text. It may open a window and display an image, for example, or use HTML display in an IJulia window. If you explicitly want `text/plain` output, you should use `show(stdout, "text/plain", x)`,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkarikom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkarikom/32/7096_2.png) [@mkarikom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkarikom)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-get-a-function-to-print-stuff-with-repl-like-formatting/45877/6 "2020-09-01T17:33:27Z")

</div>

Thanks @stevengj, MWE for reference below:

```julia
function printout(x)
    show(stdout, "text/plain", x)
end

check = rand(2,10);

printout(check);

Array{Float64,2}:
0.833317 0.0797113 0.305283 0.848721 0.897141 0.99114 0.694138 0.28158 0.82193 0.520097
0.187817 0.439049 0.922296 0.141583 0.172123 0.244657 0.720784 0.0473979 0.610638 0.941219

```