python - How does IPython's magic %paste work?

Question

I want to copy already indented Python code / whole functions and classes into IPython. Everytime I try the indentation is screwed up and I get following error message:

IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level (<ipython-input-23-354f8c8be51b>, line 12)

If you want to paste code into IPython, try the %paste and %cpaste magic functions.

Answer 1

You can't copy to IPython directly. This are the steps:

1. Copy the lines you want to copy into IPython into the clipboard
2. Enter %paste into IPython
3. Press enter
4. Profit!