debugging - Python: Print a variable's name and value?

Question

When debugging, we often see print statements like these:

print x        # easy to type, but no context
print 'x=',x   # more context, harder to type
12
x= 12

How can write a function that will take a variable or name of a variable and print its name and value? I'm interested exclusively in debugging output, this won't be incorporated into production code.

debugPrint(x)    #  or
debugPrint('x')
x=12

Answer 1

Python 3.8 f-string = syntax

It has arrived!

#!/usr/bin/env python3
foo = 1
bar = 2
print(f"{foo=} {bar=}")

output:

foo=1 bar=2 

Added in commit https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/9a4135e939bc223f592045a38e0f927ba170da32 "Add f-string debugging using '='." which documents:

f-strings now support =  for quick and easy debugging
-----------------------------------------------------

Add ``=`` specifier to f-strings. ``f'{expr=}'`` expands
to the text of the expression, an equal sign, then the repr of the
evaluated expression.  So::

  x = 3
  print(f'{x*9 + 15=}')

Would print ``x*9 + 15=42``.

so it also works for arbitrary expressions. Nice!