# Object introspection with \`object\_name?\` and \`name??\`

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/object-introspection-with-object-name-and-name/3898>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 18, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/object-introspection-with-object-name-and-name/3898 "2020-09-18T05:24:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![abitrolly](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/abitrolly/32/7214_2.png) [@abitrolly](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/abitrolly)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/object-introspection-with-object-name-and-name/3898/1 "2020-09-18T05:24:09Z")

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What I miss from Jupyter/IPython notebooks is an ability to lookup documentation with `?` and `??` commands. Quoting [the manual](https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/overview.html#main-features-of-the-interactive-shell)

> One can access docstrings, function definition prototypes, source code, source files and other details of any object accessible to the interpreter with a single keystroke ( `?` , and using `??` provides additional detail).

This is clarified further in [the tutorial](https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/interactive/tutorial.html#exploring-your-objects)

> Typing `object_name?` will print all sorts of details about any object, including docstrings, function definition lines (for call arguments) and constructor details for classes.

For Observable notebooks mported JS code is likely to miss docstrings, which can be fixed by source maps. Help text might be better seen in scrollable popup rather than in cell body. Am I right that this help lookup feature is not implemented in Observable?

How do people find out what a certain function does, like, for example, ubiquitous `svg.node()`?

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**Author:** ![severo](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/severo/32/786_2.png) [@severo](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/severo)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:09am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/object-introspection-with-object-name-and-name/3898/2 "2020-09-18T07:09:55Z")

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I always have various [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs) or [d3-_something_](https://github.com/d3/d3-array) tabs opened.