Formatting and drawing

This document explains how to format and draw a compiled circuit in Python.

Formatting

To convert your compiled circuit into its textual representation, use the str function:

str(circuit)

If you just want to see the output on your terminal, you can directly print it as well:

print(circuit)

Formatting is designed for debugging purpose only. It's not possible to create the circuit back from its textual representation. See How to Deploy if that's your goal.

Drawing

Drawing functionality requires the installation of the package with the full feature set. See the Installation section for instructions.

To draw your compiled circuit, use the draw method:

drawing = circuit.draw()

This method draws the circuit, saves it as a temporary PNG file and returns the file path.

You can display the drawing in a Jupyter notebook:

from PIL import Image
drawing = Image.open(circuit.draw())
drawing.show()
drawing.close()

Alternatively, you can use the show option of the draw method to display the drawing with matplotlib:

circuit.draw(show=True)

Using this option will clear any existing matplotlib plots.

Lastly, to save the drawing to a specific path, use the save_to option:

destination = "/tmp/path/of/your/choice.png"
drawing = circuit.draw(save_to=destination)
assert drawing == destination