Skip to content

rlcompleter Module

The rlcompleter module provides command-line completion for the Python interactive interpreter using readline.

Complexity Reference

Operation Time Space Notes
Completer() O(1) O(1) Create completer
complete(text, state) O(n) O(k) n = namespace size; scans for matches

Readline Completion

Interactive Completion Setup

import readline
import rlcompleter

# Create completer - O(1)
completer = rlcompleter.Completer()

# Install completer - O(1)
readline.set_completer(completer.complete)

# Enable tab completion - O(1)
readline.parse_and_bind('tab: complete')

# In Python interactive mode:
# >>> import math
# >>> math.<TAB>  # Shows completions