out = conn.help(actionset='builtins')
NOTE: Information for action set 'builtins':
NOTE: builtins
NOTE: addNode - Adds a machine to the server
NOTE: removeNode - Remove one or more machines from the server
NOTE: help - Shows the parameters for an action or lists all
available actions
NOTE: listNodes - Shows the host names used by the server
NOTE: loadActionSet - Loads an action set for use in this
session
NOTE: installActionSet - Loads an action set in new sessions
automatically
NOTE: log - Shows and modifies logging levels
NOTE: queryActionSet - Shows whether an action set is loaded
NOTE: queryName - Checks whether a name is an action or
action set name
NOTE: reflect - Shows detailed parameter information for an
action or all actions in an action set
NOTE: serverStatus - Shows the status of the server
NOTE: about - Shows the status of the server
NOTE: shutdown - Shuts down the server
NOTE: userInfo - Shows the user information for your connection
NOTE: actionSetInfo - Shows the build information from loaded
action sets
NOTE: history - Shows the actions that were run in this session
NOTE: casCommon - Provides parameters that are common to many
actions
NOTE: ping - Sends a single request to the server to confirm
that the connection is working
NOTE: echo - Prints the supplied parameters to the client log
NOTE: modifyQueue - Modifies the action response queue settings
NOTE: getLicenseInfo - Shows the license information for a
SAS product
NOTE: refreshLicense - Refresh SAS license information from
a file
NOTE: httpAddress - Shows the HTTP address for the server
monitor
Notice that help is one of the actions in the builtins action set. To display the Help for an action, use the action keyword argument. You can display the Help for the help action as follows:
In [6]: out = conn.help(action='help')
NOTE: Information for action 'builtins.help':
NOTE: The following parameters are accepted.
Default values are shown.
NOTE: string action=NULL,
NOTE: specifies the name of the action for which you want help.
The name can be in the form 'actionSetName.actionName' or
just 'actionName'.
NOTE: string actionSet=NULL,
NOTE: specifies the name of the action set for which you
want help. This parameter is ignored if the action
parameter is specified.
NOTE: boolean verbose=true
NOTE: when set to True, provides more detail for each parameter.
Looking at the printed notes, you can see that the help action takes the parameters actionset, action, and verbose. We have previously seen the actionset and action parameters. The verbose parameter is enabled, which means that you will get a full description of all of the parameters of the action. You can suppress the parameter descriptions by specifying verbose=False as follows:
In [7]: out = conn.help(action='help', verbose=False)
NOTE: Information for action 'builtins.help':
NOTE: The following parameters are accepted.
Default values are shown.
NOTE: string action=NULL,
NOTE: string actionSet=NULL,
NOTE: boolean verbose=true
In addition to the Help system that is provided by CAS, the SWAT module also enables you to access the action set and action information using mechanisms supplied by Python and IPython. Python supplies the help function to display information about Python objects. This same function can be used to display information about CAS action sets and actions. We have been using the help action on our CAS object. Let’s see what the Python help function displays.
In [8]: help(conn.help)
Help on builtins.Help in module swat.cas.actions object:
class builtins.Help(CASAction)
| Shows the parameters for an action or lists all available actions
|
| Parameters
| ----------
| action : string, optional
| specifies the name of the action for which you want help.
| The name can be in the form 'actionSetName.actionName' or
| just 'actionName'.
|
| actionset : string, optional
| specifies the name of the action set for which you want help.
| This parameter is ignored if the action parameter is
| specified.
|
| verbose : boolean, optional
| when set to True, provides more detail for each parameter.
| Default: True
|
| Returns
| -------
| Help object
... truncated ...
It gets a little confusing in that code snippet because both the name of the function in Python and the name of the action are the same, but you see that the information displayed by Python’s Help system is essentially the same as what CAS displayed. You can also use the IPython/Jupyter Help system (our preferred method) by following the action name with a question mark.
In [9]: conn.help?
Type: builtins.Help
String form: ?.builtins.Help()
File: swat/cas/actions.py
Definition: ?.help(_self_, action=None,
actionset=None,
verbose=True, **kwargs)
Docstring:
Shows the parameters for an action or lists all available actions
Parameters
----------
action : string, optional
specifies the name of the action for which you want help. The name
can