[Python] __repr__ vs repr [duplicate]

Is there a difference between the two methods?

For example,

>>> from datetime import date
>>> today = date(2012, 10, 13)
>>> repr(today)
'datetime.date(2012, 10, 13)'
>>> today.__repr__()
'datetime.date(2012, 10, 13)'


They seem to do the same thing, but why would someone want to use the latter over the regular repr?

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