756 lines
28 KiB
ReStructuredText
756 lines
28 KiB
ReStructuredText
PEP: 586
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Title: Literal Types
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Author: Michael Lee <michael.lee.0x2a@gmail.com>, Ivan Levkivskyi <levkivskyi@gmail.com>, Jukka Lehtosalo <jukka.lehtosalo@iki.fi>
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BDFL-Delegate: Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
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Discussions-To: typing-sig@python.org
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Status: Final
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Type: Standards Track
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Topic: Typing
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Created: 14-Mar-2019
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Python-Version: 3.8
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Post-History: 14-Mar-2019
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Resolution: https://mail.python.org/archives/list/typing-sig@python.org/message/FDO4KFYWYQEP3U2HVVBEBR3SXPHQSHYR/
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.. canonical-typing-spec:: :ref:`typing:literal-types` and
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:py:data:`typing.Literal`
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Abstract
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========
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This PEP proposes adding *Literal types* to the :pep:`484` ecosystem.
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Literal types indicate that some expression has literally a
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specific value. For example, the following function will accept
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only expressions that have literally the value "4"::
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from typing import Literal
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def accepts_only_four(x: Literal[4]) -> None:
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pass
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accepts_only_four(4) # OK
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accepts_only_four(19) # Rejected
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Motivation and Rationale
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========================
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Python has many APIs that return different types depending on the
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value of some argument provided. For example:
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- ``open(filename, mode)`` returns either ``IO[bytes]`` or ``IO[Text]``
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depending on whether the second argument is something like ``r`` or
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``rb``.
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- ``subprocess.check_output(...)`` returns either bytes or text
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depending on whether the ``universal_newlines`` keyword argument is
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set to ``True`` or not.
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This pattern is also fairly common in many popular 3rd party libraries.
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For example, here are just two examples from pandas and numpy respectively:
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- ``pandas.concat(...)`` will return either ``Series`` or
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``DataFrame`` depending on whether the ``axis`` argument is set to
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0 or 1.
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- ``numpy.unique`` will return either a single array or a tuple containing
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anywhere from two to four arrays depending on three boolean flag values.
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The typing issue tracker contains some
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`additional examples and discussion <typing-discussion_>`_.
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There is currently no way of expressing the type signatures of these
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functions: :pep:`484` does not include any mechanism for writing signatures
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where the return type varies depending on the value passed in.
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Note that this problem persists even if we redesign these APIs to
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instead accept enums: ``MyEnum.FOO`` and ``MyEnum.BAR`` are both
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considered to be of type ``MyEnum``.
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Currently, type checkers work around this limitation by adding ad hoc
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extensions for important builtins and standard library functions. For
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example, mypy comes bundled with a plugin that attempts to infer more
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precise types for ``open(...)``. While this approach works for standard
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library functions, it’s unsustainable in general: it’s not reasonable to
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expect 3rd party library authors to maintain plugins for N different
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type checkers.
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We propose adding *Literal types* to address these gaps.
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Core Semantics
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==============
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This section outlines the baseline behavior of literal types.
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Core behavior
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-------------
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Literal types indicate that a variable has a specific and
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concrete value. For example, if we define some variable ``foo`` to have
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type ``Literal[3]``, we are declaring that ``foo`` must be exactly equal
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to ``3`` and no other value.
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Given some value ``v`` that is a member of type ``T``, the type
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``Literal[v]`` shall be treated as a subtype of ``T``. For example,
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``Literal[3]`` is a subtype of ``int``.
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All methods from the parent type will be directly inherited by the
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literal type. So, if we have some variable ``foo`` of type ``Literal[3]``
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it’s safe to do things like ``foo + 5`` since ``foo`` inherits int’s
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``__add__`` method. The resulting type of ``foo + 5`` is ``int``.
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This "inheriting" behavior is identical to how we
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:pep:`handle NewTypes <484#newtype-helper-function>`.
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Equivalence of two Literals
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---------------------------
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Two types ``Literal[v1]`` and ``Literal[v2]`` are equivalent when
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both of the following conditions are true:
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1. ``type(v1) == type(v2)``
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2. ``v1 == v2``
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For example, ``Literal[20]`` and ``Literal[0x14]`` are equivalent.
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However, ``Literal[0]`` and ``Literal[False]`` is *not* equivalent
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despite that ``0 == False`` evaluates to 'true' at runtime: ``0``
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has type ``int`` and ``False`` has type ``bool``.
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Shortening unions of literals
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-----------------------------
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Literals are parameterized with one or more values. When a Literal is
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parameterized with more than one value, it's treated as exactly equivalent
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to the union of those types. That is, ``Literal[v1, v2, v3]`` is equivalent
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to ``Union[Literal[v1], Literal[v2], Literal[v3]]``.
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This shortcut helps make writing signatures for functions that accept
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many different literals more ergonomic — for example, functions like
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``open(...)``::
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# Note: this is a simplification of the true type signature.
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_PathType = Union[str, bytes, int]
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType,
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mode: Literal["r", "w", "a", "x", "r+", "w+", "a+", "x+"],
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) -> IO[Text]: ...
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType,
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mode: Literal["rb", "wb", "ab", "xb", "r+b", "w+b", "a+b", "x+b"],
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) -> IO[bytes]: ...
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# Fallback overload for when the user isn't using literal types
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType, mode: str) -> IO[Any]: ...
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The provided values do not all have to be members of the same type.
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For example, ``Literal[42, "foo", True]`` is a legal type.
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However, Literal **must** be parameterized with at least one type.
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Types like ``Literal[]`` or ``Literal`` are illegal.
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Legal and illegal parameterizations
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===================================
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This section describes what exactly constitutes a legal ``Literal[...]`` type:
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what values may and may not be used as parameters.
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In short, a ``Literal[...]`` type may be parameterized by one or more literal
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expressions, and nothing else.
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Legal parameters for ``Literal`` at type check time
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---------------------------------------------------
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``Literal`` may be parameterized with literal ints, byte and unicode strings,
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bools, Enum values and ``None``. So for example, all of
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the following would be legal::
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Literal[26]
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Literal[0x1A] # Exactly equivalent to Literal[26]
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Literal[-4]
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Literal["hello world"]
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Literal[b"hello world"]
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Literal[u"hello world"]
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Literal[True]
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Literal[Color.RED] # Assuming Color is some enum
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Literal[None]
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**Note:** Since the type ``None`` is inhabited by just a single
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value, the types ``None`` and ``Literal[None]`` are exactly equivalent.
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Type checkers may simplify ``Literal[None]`` into just ``None``.
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``Literal`` may also be parameterized by other literal types, or type aliases
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to other literal types. For example, the following is legal::
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ReadOnlyMode = Literal["r", "r+"]
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WriteAndTruncateMode = Literal["w", "w+", "wt", "w+t"]
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WriteNoTruncateMode = Literal["r+", "r+t"]
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AppendMode = Literal["a", "a+", "at", "a+t"]
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AllModes = Literal[ReadOnlyMode, WriteAndTruncateMode,
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WriteNoTruncateMode, AppendMode]
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This feature is again intended to help make using and reusing literal types
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more ergonomic.
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**Note:** As a consequence of the above rules, type checkers are also expected
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to support types that look like the following::
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Literal[Literal[Literal[1, 2, 3], "foo"], 5, None]
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This should be exactly equivalent to the following type::
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Literal[1, 2, 3, "foo", 5, None]
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...and also to the following type::
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Optional[Literal[1, 2, 3, "foo", 5]]
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**Note:** String literal types like ``Literal["foo"]`` should subtype either
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bytes or unicode in the same way regular string literals do at runtime.
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For example, in Python 3, the type ``Literal["foo"]`` is equivalent to
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``Literal[u"foo"]``, since ``"foo"`` is equivalent to ``u"foo"`` in Python 3.
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Similarly, in Python 2, the type ``Literal["foo"]`` is equivalent to
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``Literal[b"foo"]`` -- unless the file includes a
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``from __future__ import unicode_literals`` import, in which case it would be
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equivalent to ``Literal[u"foo"]``.
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Illegal parameters for ``Literal`` at type check time
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-----------------------------------------------------
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The following parameters are intentionally disallowed by design:
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- Arbitrary expressions like ``Literal[3 + 4]`` or
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``Literal["foo".replace("o", "b")]``.
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- Rationale: Literal types are meant to be a
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minimal extension to the :pep:`484` typing ecosystem and requiring type
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checkers to interpret potentially expressions inside types adds too
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much complexity. Also see `Rejected or out-of-scope ideas`_.
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- As a consequence, complex numbers like ``Literal[4 + 3j]`` and
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``Literal[-4 + 2j]`` are also prohibited. For consistency, literals like
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``Literal[4j]`` that contain just a single complex number are also
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prohibited.
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- The only exception to this rule is the unary ``-`` (minus) for ints: types
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like ``Literal[-5]`` are *accepted*.
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- Tuples containing valid literal types like ``Literal[(1, "foo", "bar")]``.
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The user could always express this type as
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``Tuple[Literal[1], Literal["foo"], Literal["bar"]]`` instead. Also,
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tuples are likely to be confused with the ``Literal[1, 2, 3]``
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shortcut.
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- Mutable literal data structures like dict literals, list literals, or
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set literals: literals are always implicitly final and immutable. So,
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``Literal[{"a": "b", "c": "d"}]`` is illegal.
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- Any other types: for example, ``Literal[Path]``, or
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``Literal[some_object_instance]`` are illegal. This includes typevars: if
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``T`` is a typevar, ``Literal[T]`` is not allowed. Typevars can vary over
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only types, never over values.
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The following are provisionally disallowed for simplicity. We can consider
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allowing them in future extensions of this PEP.
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- Floats: e.g. ``Literal[3.14]``. Representing Literals of infinity or NaN
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in a clean way is tricky; real-world APIs are unlikely to vary their
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behavior based on a float parameter.
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- Any: e.g. ``Literal[Any]``. ``Any`` is a type, and ``Literal[...]`` is
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meant to contain values only. It is also unclear what ``Literal[Any]``
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would actually semantically mean.
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Parameters at runtime
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---------------------
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Although the set of parameters ``Literal[...]`` may contain at type check time
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is very small, the actual implementation of ``typing.Literal`` will not perform
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any checks at runtime. For example::
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def my_function(x: Literal[1 + 2]) -> int:
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return x * 3
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x: Literal = 3
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y: Literal[my_function] = my_function
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The type checker should reject this program: all three uses of
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``Literal`` are *invalid* according to this spec. However, Python itself
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should execute this program with no errors.
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This is partly to help us preserve flexibility in case we want to expand the
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scope of what ``Literal`` can be used for in the future, and partly because
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it is not possible to detect all illegal parameters at runtime to begin with.
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For example, it is impossible to distinguish between ``Literal[1 + 2]`` and
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``Literal[3]`` at runtime.
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Literals, enums, and forward references
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---------------------------------------
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One potential ambiguity is between literal strings and forward
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references to literal enum members. For example, suppose we have the
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type ``Literal["Color.RED"]``. Does this literal type
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contain a string literal or a forward reference to some ``Color.RED``
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enum member?
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In cases like these, we always assume the user meant to construct a
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literal string. If the user wants a forward reference, they must wrap
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the entire literal type in a string -- e.g. ``"Literal[Color.RED]"``.
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Type inference
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==============
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This section describes a few rules regarding type inference and
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literals, along with some examples.
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Backwards compatibility
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-----------------------
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When type checkers add support for Literal, it's important they do so
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in a way that maximizes backwards-compatibility. Type checkers should
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ensure that code that used to type check continues to do so after support
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for Literal is added on a best-effort basis.
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This is particularly important when performing type inference. For
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example, given the statement ``x = "blue"``, should the inferred
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type of ``x`` be ``str`` or ``Literal["blue"]``?
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One naive strategy would be to always assume expressions are intended
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to be Literal types. So, ``x`` would always have an inferred type of
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``Literal["blue"]`` in the example above. This naive strategy is almost
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certainly too disruptive -- it would cause programs like the following
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to start failing when they previously did not::
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# If a type checker infers 'var' has type Literal[3]
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# and my_list has type List[Literal[3]]...
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var = 3
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my_list = [var]
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# ...this call would be a type-error.
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my_list.append(4)
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Another example of when this strategy would fail is when setting fields
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in objects::
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class MyObject:
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def __init__(self) -> None:
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# If a type checker infers MyObject.field has type Literal[3]...
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self.field = 3
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m = MyObject()
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# ...this assignment would no longer type check
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m.field = 4
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An alternative strategy that *does* maintain compatibility in every case would
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be to always assume expressions are *not* Literal types unless they are
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explicitly annotated otherwise. A type checker using this strategy would
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always infer that ``x`` is of type ``str`` in the first example above.
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This is not the only viable strategy: type checkers should feel free to experiment
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with more sophisticated inference techniques. This PEP does not mandate any
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particular strategy; it only emphasizes the importance of backwards compatibility.
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Using non-Literals in Literal contexts
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--------------------------------------
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Literal types follow the existing rules regarding subtyping with no additional
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special-casing. For example, programs like the following are type safe::
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def expects_str(x: str) -> None: ...
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var: Literal["foo"] = "foo"
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# Legal: Literal["foo"] is a subtype of str
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expects_str(var)
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This also means non-Literal expressions in general should not automatically
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be cast to Literal. For example::
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def expects_literal(x: Literal["foo"]) -> None: ...
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def runner(my_str: str) -> None:
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# ILLEGAL: str is not a subclass of Literal["foo"]
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expects_literal(my_str)
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**Note:** If the user wants their API to support accepting both literals
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*and* the original type -- perhaps for legacy purposes -- they should
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implement a fallback overload. See `Interactions with overloads`_.
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Interactions with other types and features
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==========================================
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This section discusses how Literal types interact with other existing types.
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Intelligent indexing of structured data
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---------------------------------------
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Literals can be used to "intelligently index" into structured types like
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tuples, NamedTuple, and classes. (Note: this is not an exhaustive list).
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For example, type checkers should infer the correct value type when
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indexing into a tuple using an int key that corresponds a valid index::
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a: Literal[0] = 0
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b: Literal[5] = 5
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some_tuple: Tuple[int, str, List[bool]] = (3, "abc", [True, False])
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reveal_type(some_tuple[a]) # Revealed type is 'int'
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some_tuple[b] # Error: 5 is not a valid index into the tuple
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We expect similar behavior when using functions like getattr::
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class Test:
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def __init__(self, param: int) -> None:
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self.myfield = param
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def mymethod(self, val: int) -> str: ...
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a: Literal["myfield"] = "myfield"
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b: Literal["mymethod"] = "mymethod"
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c: Literal["blah"] = "blah"
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t = Test()
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reveal_type(getattr(t, a)) # Revealed type is 'int'
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reveal_type(getattr(t, b)) # Revealed type is 'Callable[[int], str]'
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getattr(t, c) # Error: No attribute named 'blah' in Test
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**Note:** See `Interactions with Final`_ for a proposal on how we can
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express the variable declarations above in a more compact manner.
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Interactions with overloads
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---------------------------
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Literal types and overloads do not need to interact in a special
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way: the existing rules work fine.
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However, one important use case type checkers must take care to
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support is the ability to use a *fallback* when the user is not using literal
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types. For example, consider ``open``::
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_PathType = Union[str, bytes, int]
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType,
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mode: Literal["r", "w", "a", "x", "r+", "w+", "a+", "x+"],
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) -> IO[Text]: ...
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType,
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mode: Literal["rb", "wb", "ab", "xb", "r+b", "w+b", "a+b", "x+b"],
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) -> IO[bytes]: ...
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# Fallback overload for when the user isn't using literal types
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@overload
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def open(path: _PathType, mode: str) -> IO[Any]: ...
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If we were to change the signature of ``open`` to use just the first two overloads,
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we would break any code that does not pass in a literal string expression.
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For example, code like this would be broken::
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mode: str = pick_file_mode(...)
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with open(path, mode) as f:
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# f should continue to be of type IO[Any] here
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A little more broadly: we propose adding a policy to typeshed that
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mandates that whenever we add literal types to some existing API, we also
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always include a fallback overload to maintain backwards-compatibility.
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Interactions with generics
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--------------------------
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Types like ``Literal[3]`` are meant to be just plain old subclasses of
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``int``. This means you can use types like ``Literal[3]`` anywhere
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you could use normal types, such as with generics.
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This means that it is legal to parameterize generic functions or
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classes using Literal types::
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A = TypeVar('A', bound=int)
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B = TypeVar('B', bound=int)
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C = TypeVar('C', bound=int)
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# A simplified definition for Matrix[row, column]
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class Matrix(Generic[A, B]):
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def __add__(self, other: Matrix[A, B]) -> Matrix[A, B]: ...
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def __matmul__(self, other: Matrix[B, C]) -> Matrix[A, C]: ...
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def transpose(self) -> Matrix[B, A]: ...
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foo: Matrix[Literal[2], Literal[3]] = Matrix(...)
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bar: Matrix[Literal[3], Literal[7]] = Matrix(...)
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baz = foo @ bar
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reveal_type(baz) # Revealed type is 'Matrix[Literal[2], Literal[7]]'
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Similarly, it is legal to construct TypeVars with value restrictions
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or bounds involving Literal types::
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T = TypeVar('T', Literal["a"], Literal["b"], Literal["c"])
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S = TypeVar('S', bound=Literal["foo"])
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...although it is unclear when it would ever be useful to construct a
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TypeVar with a Literal upper bound. For example, the ``S`` TypeVar in
|
||
the above example is essentially pointless: we can get equivalent behavior
|
||
by using ``S = Literal["foo"]`` instead.
|
||
|
||
**Note:** Literal types and generics deliberately interact in only very
|
||
basic and limited ways. In particular, libraries that want to type check
|
||
code containing a heavy amount of numeric or numpy-style manipulation will
|
||
almost certainly likely find Literal types as proposed in this PEP to be
|
||
insufficient for their needs.
|
||
|
||
We considered several different proposals for fixing this, but ultimately
|
||
decided to defer the problem of integer generics to a later date. See
|
||
`Rejected or out-of-scope ideas`_ for more details.
|
||
|
||
Interactions with enums and exhaustiveness checks
|
||
-------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Type checkers should be capable of performing exhaustiveness checks when
|
||
working Literal types that have a closed number of variants, such as
|
||
enums. For example, the type checker should be capable of inferring that
|
||
the final ``else`` statement must be of type ``str``, since all three
|
||
values of the ``Status`` enum have already been exhausted::
|
||
|
||
class Status(Enum):
|
||
SUCCESS = 0
|
||
INVALID_DATA = 1
|
||
FATAL_ERROR = 2
|
||
|
||
def parse_status(s: Union[str, Status]) -> None:
|
||
if s is Status.SUCCESS:
|
||
print("Success!")
|
||
elif s is Status.INVALID_DATA:
|
||
print("The given data is invalid because...")
|
||
elif s is Status.FATAL_ERROR:
|
||
print("Unexpected fatal error...")
|
||
else:
|
||
# 's' must be of type 'str' since all other options are exhausted
|
||
print("Got custom status: " + s)
|
||
|
||
The interaction described above is not new: it's already
|
||
:pep:`codified within PEP 484 <484#support-for-singleton-types-in-unions>`.
|
||
However, many type
|
||
checkers (such as mypy) do not yet implement this due to the expected
|
||
complexity of the implementation work.
|
||
|
||
Some of this complexity will be alleviated once Literal types are introduced:
|
||
rather than entirely special-casing enums, we can instead treat them as being
|
||
approximately equivalent to the union of their values and take advantage of any
|
||
existing logic regarding unions, exhaustibility, type narrowing, reachability,
|
||
and so forth the type checker might have already implemented.
|
||
|
||
So here, the ``Status`` enum could be treated as being approximately equivalent
|
||
to ``Literal[Status.SUCCESS, Status.INVALID_DATA, Status.FATAL_ERROR]``
|
||
and the type of ``s`` narrowed accordingly.
|
||
|
||
Interactions with narrowing
|
||
---------------------------
|
||
|
||
Type checkers may optionally perform additional analysis for both enum and
|
||
non-enum Literal types beyond what is described in the section above.
|
||
|
||
For example, it may be useful to perform narrowing based on things like
|
||
containment or equality checks::
|
||
|
||
def parse_status(status: str) -> None:
|
||
if status in ("MALFORMED", "ABORTED"):
|
||
# Type checker could narrow 'status' to type
|
||
# Literal["MALFORMED", "ABORTED"] here.
|
||
return expects_bad_status(status)
|
||
|
||
# Similarly, type checker could narrow 'status' to Literal["PENDING"]
|
||
if status == "PENDING":
|
||
expects_pending_status(status)
|
||
|
||
It may also be useful to perform narrowing taking into account expressions
|
||
involving Literal bools. For example, we can combine ``Literal[True]``,
|
||
``Literal[False]``, and overloads to construct "custom type guards"::
|
||
|
||
@overload
|
||
def is_int_like(x: Union[int, List[int]]) -> Literal[True]: ...
|
||
@overload
|
||
def is_int_like(x: object) -> bool: ...
|
||
def is_int_like(x): ...
|
||
|
||
vector: List[int] = [1, 2, 3]
|
||
if is_int_like(vector):
|
||
vector.append(3)
|
||
else:
|
||
vector.append("bad") # This branch is inferred to be unreachable
|
||
|
||
scalar: Union[int, str]
|
||
if is_int_like(scalar):
|
||
scalar += 3 # Type checks: type of 'scalar' is narrowed to 'int'
|
||
else:
|
||
scalar += "foo" # Type checks: type of 'scalar' is narrowed to 'str'
|
||
|
||
Interactions with Final
|
||
-----------------------
|
||
|
||
:pep:`591` proposes adding a "Final" qualifier to the typing
|
||
ecosystem. This qualifier can be used to declare that some variable or
|
||
attribute cannot be reassigned::
|
||
|
||
foo: Final = 3
|
||
foo = 4 # Error: 'foo' is declared to be Final
|
||
|
||
Note that in the example above, we know that ``foo`` will always be equal to
|
||
exactly ``3``. A type checker can use this information to deduce that ``foo``
|
||
is valid to use in any context that expects a ``Literal[3]``::
|
||
|
||
def expects_three(x: Literal[3]) -> None: ...
|
||
|
||
expects_three(foo) # Type checks, since 'foo' is Final and equal to 3
|
||
|
||
The ``Final`` qualifier serves as a shorthand for declaring that a variable
|
||
is *effectively Literal*.
|
||
|
||
If both this PEP and :pep:`591` are accepted, type checkers are expected to
|
||
support this shortcut. Specifically, given a variable or attribute assignment
|
||
of the form ``var: Final = value`` where ``value`` is a valid parameter for
|
||
``Literal[...]``, type checkers should understand that ``var`` may be used in
|
||
any context that expects a ``Literal[value]``.
|
||
|
||
Type checkers are not obligated to understand any other uses of Final. For
|
||
example, whether or not the following program type checks is left unspecified::
|
||
|
||
# Note: The assignment does not exactly match the form 'var: Final = value'.
|
||
bar1: Final[int] = 3
|
||
expects_three(bar1) # May or may not be accepted by type checkers
|
||
|
||
# Note: "Literal[1 + 2]" is not a legal type.
|
||
bar2: Final = 1 + 2
|
||
expects_three(bar2) # May or may not be accepted by type checkers
|
||
|
||
Rejected or out-of-scope ideas
|
||
==============================
|
||
|
||
This section outlines some potential features that are explicitly out-of-scope.
|
||
|
||
True dependent types/integer generics
|
||
-------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
This proposal is essentially describing adding a very simplified
|
||
dependent type system to the :pep:`484` ecosystem. One obvious extension
|
||
would be to implement a full-fledged dependent type system that lets users
|
||
predicate types based on their values in arbitrary ways. That would
|
||
let us write signatures like the below::
|
||
|
||
# A vector has length 'n', containing elements of type 'T'
|
||
class Vector(Generic[N, T]): ...
|
||
|
||
# The type checker will statically verify our function genuinely does
|
||
# construct a vector that is equal in length to "len(vec1) + len(vec2)"
|
||
# and will throw an error if it does not.
|
||
def concat(vec1: Vector[A, T], vec2: Vector[B, T]) -> Vector[A + B, T]:
|
||
# ...snip...
|
||
|
||
At the very least, it would be useful to add some form of integer generics.
|
||
|
||
Although such a type system would certainly be useful, it’s out of scope
|
||
for this PEP: it would require a far more substantial amount of implementation
|
||
work, discussion, and research to complete compared to the current proposal.
|
||
|
||
It's entirely possible we'll circle back and revisit this topic in the future:
|
||
we very likely will need some form of dependent typing along with other
|
||
extensions like variadic generics to support popular libraries like numpy.
|
||
|
||
This PEP should be seen as a stepping stone towards this goal,
|
||
rather than an attempt at providing a comprehensive solution.
|
||
|
||
Adding more concise syntax
|
||
--------------------------
|
||
|
||
One objection to this PEP is that having to explicitly write ``Literal[...]``
|
||
feels verbose. For example, instead of writing::
|
||
|
||
def foobar(arg1: Literal[1], arg2: Literal[True]) -> None:
|
||
pass
|
||
|
||
...it would be nice to instead write::
|
||
|
||
def foobar(arg1: 1, arg2: True) -> None:
|
||
pass
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately, these abbreviations simply will not work with the
|
||
existing implementation of ``typing`` at runtime. For example, the
|
||
following snippet crashes when run using Python 3.7::
|
||
|
||
from typing import Tuple
|
||
|
||
# Supposed to accept tuple containing the literals 1 and 2
|
||
def foo(x: Tuple[1, 2]) -> None:
|
||
pass
|
||
|
||
Running this yields the following exception::
|
||
|
||
TypeError: Tuple[t0, t1, ...]: each t must be a type. Got 1.
|
||
|
||
We don’t want users to have to memorize exactly when it’s ok to elide
|
||
``Literal``, so we require ``Literal`` to always be present.
|
||
|
||
A little more broadly, we feel overhauling the syntax of types in
|
||
Python is not within the scope of this PEP: it would be best to have
|
||
that discussion in a separate PEP, instead of attaching it to this one.
|
||
So, this PEP deliberately does not try and innovate Python's type syntax.
|
||
|
||
Backporting the ``Literal`` type
|
||
================================
|
||
|
||
Once this PEP is accepted, the ``Literal`` type will need to be backported for
|
||
Python versions that come bundled with older versions of the ``typing`` module.
|
||
We plan to do this by adding ``Literal`` to the ``typing_extensions`` 3rd party
|
||
module, which contains a variety of other backported types.
|
||
|
||
Implementation
|
||
==============
|
||
|
||
The mypy type checker currently has implemented a large subset of the behavior
|
||
described in this spec, with the exception of enum Literals and some of the
|
||
more complex narrowing interactions described above.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Related work
|
||
============
|
||
|
||
This proposal was written based on the discussion that took place in the
|
||
following threads:
|
||
|
||
- `Check that literals belong to/are excluded from a set of values <typing-discussion_>`_
|
||
|
||
- `Simple dependent types <mypy-discussion_>`_
|
||
|
||
- `Typing for multi-dimensional arrays <arrays-discussion_>`_
|
||
|
||
The overall design of this proposal also ended up converging into
|
||
something similar to how
|
||
`literal types are handled in TypeScript <typescript-literal-types_>`_.
|
||
|
||
.. _typing-discussion: https://github.com/python/typing/issues/478
|
||
|
||
.. _mypy-discussion: https://github.com/python/mypy/issues/3062
|
||
|
||
.. _arrays-discussion: https://github.com/python/typing/issues/513
|
||
|
||
.. _typescript-literal-types: https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/advanced-types.html#string-literal_types
|
||
|
||
.. _typescript-index-types: https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/advanced-types.html#index-types
|
||
|
||
|
||
Acknowledgements
|
||
================
|
||
|
||
Thanks to Mark Mendoza, Ran Benita, Rebecca Chen, and the other members of
|
||
typing-sig for their comments on this PEP.
|
||
|
||
Additional thanks to the various participants in the mypy and typing issue
|
||
trackers, who helped provide a lot of the motivation and reasoning behind
|
||
this PEP.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Copyright
|
||
=========
|
||
|
||
This document has been placed in the public domain.
|