How to print instances of a class using print()?

As Chris Lutz explains, this is defined by the __repr__ method in your class.

From the documentation of repr():

For many types, this function makes an attempt to return a string that would yield an object with the same value when passed to eval(), otherwise the representation is a string enclosed in angle brackets that contains the name of the type of the object together with additional information often including the name and address of the object. A class can control what this function returns for its instances by defining a __repr__() method.

Given the following class Test:

class Test:
    def __init__(self, a, b):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"<Test a:{self.a} b:{self.b}>"

    def __str__(self):
        return f"From str method of Test: a is {self.a}, b is {self.b}"

..it will act the following way in the Python shell:

>>> t = Test(123, 456)
>>> t
<Test a:123 b:456>
>>> print(repr(t))
<Test a:123 b:456>
>>> print(t)
From str method of Test: a is 123, b is 456
>>> print(str(t))
From str method of Test: a is 123, b is 456

If no __str__ method is defined, print(t) (or print(str(t))) will use the result of __repr__ instead

If no __repr__ method is defined then the default is used, which is roughly equivalent to:

def __repr__(self):
    cls = self.__class__
    return f"<{cls.__module_}.{cls.__qualname__} object at {id(self)}>"

>>> class Test:
...     def __repr__(self):
...         return "Test()"
...     def __str__(self):
...         return "member of Test"
... 
>>> t = Test()
>>> t
Test()
>>> print(t)
member of Test

The __str__ method is what gets called happens when you print it, and the __repr__ method is what happens when you use the repr() function (or when you look at it with the interactive prompt).

If no __str__ method is given, Python will print the result of __repr__ instead. If you define __str__ but not __repr__, Python will use what you see above as the __repr__, but still use __str__ for printing.

A generic way that can be applied to any class without specific formatting could be done as follows:

class Element:
    def __init__(self, name, symbol, number):
        self.name = name
        self.symbol = symbol
        self.number = number

    def __str__(self):
        return str(self.__class__) + ": " + str(self.__dict__)

And then,

elem = Element('my_name', 'some_symbol', 3)
print(elem)

produces

__main__.Element: {'symbol': 'some_symbol', 'name': 'my_name', 'number': 3}