How to wrap several printed values by defined symbol in __repr__()? - class

Question

There is a new class. Each instance contain a refernce to next instance.
The goal is to build __repr__(self) function, that represent element of the class with all referenced elements, when each value wrapped by defined symbol. For example by # or *.
Something like this:
****** ****** ******
* 10 * * 20 * * 30 *
****** ****** ******
There is an example:
class Node:
def __init__(self, value):
self.value = value
self.pointer = None
#pointer.setter
def pointer(self, next_node):
self.pointer = next_node
p1 = Node(10)
p2 = Node(20)
p3 = Node(30)
p1.pointer = p2
p2.pointer = p3
print (p1)
That what I did:
def __str__(self):
ans = "{1} {0} {1}".format(self.value, "*")
wrap = "{0:{1}^{2}}".format("", "*", len(ans))
return "{1}\n* {0} *\n{1}".format(ans, wrap)
But it works only for one element.
For printing of all referenced elements i wrote another function:
def show(self):
buf = self
while buf.value:
print(buf)
if buf.pointer:
buf = buf.pointer
else:
break
But it prints each element on a new line. Like this:
******
* 10 *
******
******
* 20 *
******
******
* 30 *
******
The problem is that i don't know how return on first line with some indent and print the next 3 lines elemen.
The question:
Is there some way to build __repr__() function for representing all referenced elements?

Answer 1

That's I have done... Forgive me for this huge code. I am just pretty new in python.
I solved it by .format() funtion. And by printing 3 lines at the output. But i still wait and hope for more elegant solution...
There is also option to change the wrapping character in print_linked_list fuction. And it prints only 5 following values.
def __repr__(self):
return self.print_linked_list()
__str__ = __repr__
def print_linked_list(self, border="*", count=5):
# examples of printing:
# ***** ****** ******* ****** *****
# * 3 * -> * 80 * -> * 100 * -> * 20 * -> * 8 *
# ***** ****** ******* ****** *****
ar = " -> "
wrap, ans_string = str(), str()
buf = self
while buf and count >= 0:
ans = "{0} {1} {0}".format(border, buf.value)
ans_string += ans + (ar if buf.next else "")
wrap += "{0:{1}<{2}}".format("", border, len(ans)) + \
"{:^{}}".format("", len(ar))
buf = buf.next if buf.next else False
count -= 1
return "\n{0}\n{1}\n{0}".format(wrap, ans_string)