Added new capability to the `%load` magic to search the user's namespace for modules, classes, or functions and inspects those to load source.

Currently, the `-n` argument must be passed to `%load` to enable this capability.

IPython/core/interactiveshell.py

@@ -3089,7 +3089,7 b' class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable):'
         lines = self.history_manager.get_range_by_str(range_str, raw=raw)
         return "\n".join(x for _, _, x in lines)
 
-    def find_user_code(self, target, raw=True, py_only=False, skip_encoding_cookie=True):
+    def find_user_code(self, target, raw=True, py_only=False, skip_encoding_cookie=True, search_ns=False):
         """Get a code string from history, file, url, or a string or macro.
 
         This is mainly used by magic functions.
@@ -3156,11 +3156,31 b' class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable):'
             elif os.path.isdir(os.path.expanduser(tgt)):
                 raise ValueError("'%s' is a directory, not a regular file." % target)
 
+        if search_ns:
+            obj = None
+            parts = target.split(".")
+            try:
+                if len(parts) >= 1:
+                    obj = self.user_ns[parts[0]]
+                
+                    for new_obj in parts[1:]:
+                        obj = getattr(obj, new_obj)
+
+                if obj:
+                    
+                        code = oinspect.getsource(obj)
+                        return code
+            except Exception:
+                # Either the value wa't in th user_ns or the objects could 
+                # not be inspected. It still might load below, so just pass.
+                pass
+
         try:                                              # User namespace
             codeobj = eval(target, self.user_ns)
         except Exception:
             raise ValueError(("'%s' was not found in history, as a file, url, "
                                 "nor in the user namespace.") % target)
+
         if isinstance(codeobj, string_types):
             return codeobj
         elif isinstance(codeobj, Macro):

IPython/core/magics/code.py

@@ -272,7 +272,8 b' class CodeMagics(Magics):'
         Usage:\\
           %load [options] source
 
-          where source can be a filename, URL, input history range or macro
+          where source can be a filename, URL, input history range, macro, or
+          element in the user namespace
 
         Options:
 
@@ -285,6 +286,8 b' class CodeMagics(Magics):'
 
           -y : Don't ask confirmation for loading source above 200 000 characters.
 
+          -n : Include the user's namespace when searching for source code.
+
         This magic command can either take a local filename, a URL, an history
         range (see %history) or a macro as argument, it will prompt for
         confirmation before loading source with more than 200 000 characters, unless
@@ -297,14 +300,18 b' class CodeMagics(Magics):'
         %load -r 5-10 myscript.py
         %load -r 10-20,30,40: foo.py
         %load -s MyClass,wonder_function myscript.py
+        %load -n MyClass
+        %load -n my_module.wonder_function
         """
-        opts,args = self.parse_options(arg_s,'ys:r:')
+        opts,args = self.parse_options(arg_s,'yns:r:')
 
         if not args:
             raise UsageError('Missing filename, URL, input history range, '
-                             'or macro.')
+                             'macro, or element in the user namespace.')
+
+        search_ns = 'n' in opts
 
-        contents = self.shell.find_user_code(args)
+        contents = self.shell.find_user_code(args, search_ns=search_ns)
 
         if 's' in opts:
             try: