.. _help:

help
****


**Syntax:** :code:`help(topic, format)`

Shows usage information.

This command can be used in the distributed processing mode, but it does not participate in distributed processing.

Arguments
---------

topic [input]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Data type:** string

**Default value:** ""

Name of command whose help is to be retrieved. Specify nothing to show general help.

format [input]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Data type:** string

**Default value:** text

Output format. Can be text for textual output or rst for ReStructuredText output. The latter is more complex format.

See also
--------

:ref:`help`, :ref:`info`, :ref:`license`, :ref:`echo`, :ref:`print`, :ref:`waitreturn`, :ref:`hello`, :ref:`timing`, :ref:`savetiming`, :ref:`resettiming`