Purpose of __repr__ method?

__repr__ should return a printable representation of the object, most likely one of the ways possible to create this object. See official documentation here. __repr__ is more for developers while __str__ is for end users.

A simple example:

>>> class Point:
...   def __init__(self, x, y):
...     self.x, self.y = x, y
...   def __repr__(self):
...     return 'Point(x=%s, y=%s)' % (self.x, self.y)
>>> p = Point(1, 2)
>>> p
Point(x=1, y=2)