module' name as string--for examplehelp('re')help('email message')--but support for this and other modes may differ across python versions for larger objects such as modules and classesthe help display is broken down into multiple sectionsthe preambles of which are shown here run this interactively to see the full report ( ' running this on )help(syshelp on built-in module sysname sys module reference more omitted description this module provides access to some objects used or maintained by the interpreter and to functions that interact strongly with the interpreter more omitted functions __displayhook__ displayhookdisplayhook(object-none more omitted data __stderr__ mode='wencoding='cp __stdin__ mode='rencoding='cp __stdout__ mode='wencoding='cp more omitted file (built-insome of the information in this report is docstringsand some of it ( function call patternsis structural information that pydoc gleans automatically by inspecting objectsinternalswhen available besides modulesyou can also use help on built-in functionsmethodsand types usage varies slightly across python versionsbut to get help for built-in typetry either the type name ( dict for dictionarystr for stringlist for list)an actual object of the type ( {}''[])or method of an actual object or type name ( str join the documentation interlude