Specs

inspect(Inspect.t(), keyword()) :: String.t()

Inspects the given argument according to the Inspect protocol. The second argument is a keyword list with options to control inspection.

Options

inspect/2 accepts a list of options that are internally translated to an Inspect.Opts struct. Check the docs for Inspect.Opts to see the supported options.

Examples

iex> inspect(:foo)
":foo"

iex> inspect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], limit: 3)
"[1, 2, 3, ...]"

iex> inspect([1, 2, 3], pretty: true, width: 0)
"[1,\n 2,\n 3]"

iex> inspect("olá" <> <<0>>)
"<<111, 108, 195, 161, 0>>"

iex> inspect("olá" <> <<0>>, binaries: :as_strings)
"\"olá\\0\""

iex> inspect("olá", binaries: :as_binaries)
"<<111, 108, 195, 161>>"

iex> inspect('bar')
"'bar'"

iex> inspect([0 | 'bar'])
"[0, 98, 97, 114]"

iex> inspect(100, base: :octal)
"0o144"

iex> inspect(100, base: :hex)
"0x64"

Note that the Inspect protocol does not necessarily return a valid representation of an Elixir term. In such cases, the inspected result must start with #. For example, inspecting a function will return:

inspect(fn a, b -> a + b end)
#=> #Function<...>

The Inspect protocol can be derived to hide certain fields from structs, so they don't show up in logs, inspects and similar. See the "Deriving" section of the documentation of the Inspect protocol for more information.