Spyder missing Object Inspector

Question

I just installed Anaconda and running Spyder I cannot find the Object Inspector. Hitting Ctrl+I has no effect and in the View/Panes menu there is no item Object Inspector.

I have seen videos and tutorials that show the Object Inspector. What is happening?

score 45 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 17 '16 at 08:40

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The "Object Inspector" is now called "Help" (from Spyder version 3.0 onwards); see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/spyderlib/pF7KmSKDFXc . However, the Ctrl-I shortcut has not been changed, so I'm not sure what's happening with that.

answered Nov 17 '16 at 08:40

Jitse Niesen

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score 37 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 11 '20 at 19:54

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go to preferences > Help and enable the Automatic connections for Editor and restart the Spyder

This worked for me!!

edited Jan 11 '20 at 19:54

Community

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answered Apr 06 '17 at 14:19

Ibrahem Negm

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Without restarting it was not working. Thanks for great help – Ajay yadav Jun 18 '18 at 13:51
tools -> preferences – YetAnotherBot Dec 19 '18 at 18:10
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For me it was in Tools -> preferences -> Help tab -> enable automatic connections for editor – mta194 Jul 03 '19 at 14:22

score 6 · Answer 3 · edited May 01 '18 at 13:37

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Although it's given in the tutorials but I'll explain.

1) Object Inspector is now known as Help.

2) I'm using Spyder 3.6, here go to Tools-->Preferences-->Help-->Check on Editor in Automatic Connections

3) Select your parameter and Ctrl+I

That'll do it.

edited May 01 '18 at 13:37

Developer Guy

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answered May 01 '18 at 10:46

Shubham Banerjee

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 27 '16 at 14:04

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I had the same problem. I found the help and then discovered that I got a message saying No Documentation. I tried changing the setting from Rich Text to Plain Text and for some reason that worked and I'm able to use the Object Inspector.

answered Nov 27 '16 at 14:04

bwsshields

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Please provide short and precise answer. – Amin Alaee Nov 27 '16 at 14:10
@bwsshields - Where was the setting you changed? – Soldalma Nov 27 '16 at 19:20
This solution works! Click the "Help" tab, then click on the gear icon (top right corner) and select "Plain Text" from the drop down menu. – user3889486 Sep 18 '18 at 17:31

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 13 '17 at 14:42

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Since they changed "Object Inspector" to "Help", as Jitse Niesen says, they might have changed the shortcut too. In my Mac version the shortcut for "Help" is Shift+Cmd+H so the combination you are looking for is probably Ctrl+H.

answered Jun 13 '17 at 14:42

Xavier del Pozo

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Shift+Cmd+H is the shortcut to give focus to the Help plugin, not the shortcut to get info displayed on it. – Carlos Cordoba Jun 13 '17 at 15:05
Thx @CarlosCordoba, I also discovered later that Cmd+I is the shortcut for displaying the info. – Xavier del Pozo Jun 18 '17 at 17:02

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 02 '18 at 17:39

On mac using Spyder 3.3.1 run from Anaconda.

Cmd + I was not working for me at first to show the object inspector on the right pane for help on a particular function. So I typed in Cmd + , (which is to access preferences panel in any app on Mac), and went down to "Help" on the left side.

Then, I checked the boxes for "Editor" and "IPython Console" under the description that says "This pane can automatically show an object's help information after a left parenthesis is written next to it. Below you can decide to which plugin you want to connect it to turn on this feature."

After checking these boxes and pressing OK, Cmd + I still did not work for getting the object information.

I restarted Spyder, closing it and reopening it from Anaconda navigator.

Now Cmd + I works and shows the information for whatever function I click on.

Hope this helps someone. I'm still not quite sure what happened here (since those checkboxes were for the left parenthesis function), but I still thought that sharing the steps will be useful to some people.

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 07 '17 at 14:39

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In Windows, Ctrl+Shift+H worked after making changes to preferences as suggested by Ibrahem

edited Oct 07 '17 at 14:39

Stephen Rauch

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answered Oct 07 '17 at 14:21

Ravi Naidu

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 25 '17 at 11:07

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Go to preferences->Help and tick the option of showing object info on Editor , then ctrl+I will work with any object

answered Oct 25 '17 at 11:07

Mannan

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Bede Ngaruko · Answer 9 · 2017-11-22T08:52:10.733

One way to go about this is to go to View > Panes > Online Help. Then in the search box insert the module or package like so (sklearn.preprocessing.Imputer) and you will have all the docs related to the package.(**Shortest way: click on package....then Cmd + i )

Alternatively, right clicking the Object in the editor, select Go to Definition

Third way, in your console, type help(your class here) like help(Imputer) or just help() to get the interactive console then type your package there (sklearn.preprocessing.Imputer`).

Hope this help someone.

score 1 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 20 '18 at 14:25

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After pressing Ctrl+H , a help window will come in that in [Source] dropdown select Console

edited Apr 20 '18 at 14:25

Developer Guy

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answered Apr 20 '18 at 07:09

Gauravjit

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 29 '17 at 08:03

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Please check the spelling of your command, if you type wrong spelling it wont display the help

answered Jul 29 '17 at 08:03

Aji

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 05 '18 at 21:24

Note that in Spyder version 3.2.4 under Tools>Preferences>Help>Automatic Connections it clearly now states: "This pane can automatically show an object's help information after a left parenthesis is written next to it. Below you can decide to which plugin you want to connect it to turn on this feature." Then you can select Editor and/or IPython Console.

When I tried this, placing a left parenthesis before the (term is the only way I could get the help to bring up an example and a definition.

itsergiu · Answer 13 · 2018-08-07T19:53:57.080

Nothing worked from above. I can debug objects easy in Visual Studio Code, but I can not do it in Spyder 3.2.8 installed with Anaconda 5.2 for Windows. In IPython console during debugging I use following.

To inspect an object:

vars(my_object)

To list class objects:

[obj.name for obj in gc.get_objects() if isinstance(obj, my_class)]

This solution solved the problem and shows objects in Variable Explorer.

https://gitter.im/spyder-ide/public?at=5b69bac8e9ab53770ca018d0

Question: How can I explore objects during debugging like I explore variables? In IPython consle I use vars(my_object), this is a prompt way. I want a GUI way for Object like Variable explorer.

I want a GUI way for Object like Variable explorer.

Answer: As a matter of fact, Spyder has one, exactly like the Variable Explorer: it's called...the Variable Explorer! If you can't see them, make sure Exclude unsupported data types is not selected under the "Gear" menu in the top right of the pane.

Most arbitrary objects should work, although there may occasionally be a few bugs for more esoteric ones. Even better support will be coming in Spyder 4.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 08 '18 at 02:33

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Just left click on the top right corner, beside the close tab of editor and below the working directory tab

I tried it, and it successfully worked.

answered Sep 08 '18 at 02:33

Siddharth Shrivastava

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Spyder missing Object Inspector

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