python / python/cpython

Allow accessing all arguments by name on mock call objects

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#95,839 2 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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stdlib type-feature
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Feature or enhancement

Currently, call objects from the unittest.mock library only provide a tuple of positional arguments and a dictionary of keyword arguments passed to the function. It should be possible to enable accessing all arguments by name, not just the keyword arguments. The Signature object can help with this: https://docs.python.org/3/library/inspect.html#introspecting-callables-with-the-signature-object.

Pitch

For more robust and readable testing code.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the unittest.mock call-object behavior and the linked inspect.Signature documentation. Determine how accessing positional arguments by name should work alongside the existing positional tuple and keyword dictionary, then define the expected API and tests that demonstrate readable named-argument access.

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Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
testing
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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