python / python/mypy

How to use typing.Never to indicate a subclass method with zero arguments cannot be called?

Open
#14,726 0 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

feature
Dominant language
Python
Stars
20.6k
Forks
3.3k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Feature

If you have a subclass that has a method defined in the superclass, but in the subclass should never get called, you should be able to declare self to have type Never.

Pitch

Let's suppose I have a base class Base with a method foo(), and a subclass Sub that raises an Exception if foo() is called. I'd like it so that the type checker flags an error on Sub.foo(), but not Base.foo(), so I tried this:

from typing_extensions import Never


class Base:
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def foo(self) -> None:
        print("foo")
        
    def goo(self, x: int) -> None;
        print("goo ", x)


class Sub(Base):
    def foo(self: Never) -> None:
        raise Exception("never")
    
    def goo(self, x: Never) -> None:
        raise Exception("never")


x = Sub()
x.foo()
x.goo(3)

With mypy 1.0.0 and python 3.10, I get the following:

neversub.py:16: error: The erased type of self "<nothing>" is not a supertype of its class "neversub.Sub"  [misc]
neversub.py:19: error: Argument 1 of "goo" is incompatible with supertype "Base"; supertype defines the argument type as "int"  [override]
neversub.py:19: note: This violates the Liskov substitution principle
neversub.py:19: note: See https://mypy.readthedocs.io/en/stable/common_issues.html#incompatible-overrides
neversub.py:24: error: Invalid self argument "Sub" to attribute function "foo" with type "Callable[[NoReturn], None]"  [misc]
neversub.py:25: error: Argument 1 to "goo" of "Sub" has incompatible type "int"; expected "NoReturn"  [arg-type]

The last two errors are exactly what I want. But while the first error makes sense, aside from using a # type: ignore, I'm not sure how this should be declared to avoid having to use # type: ignore. In other words, what is the right way to indicate that a method with zero parameters is not valid to call in a subclass? Secondly, shouldn't the declaration of goo be considered as not violating the Liskov substitution principle based on how typing.Never is supposed to work?

I should note that with the method goo(), since it has a required argument, I can use the Never declaration to show that this is invalid. What's not clear is how do you indicate that a method with no arguments is invalid without having to use # type: ignore ?

I think this is a valid use of Never, and Eric Traut from pyright agrees: https://github.com/microsoft/pyright/issues/4653#issuecomment-1434851320

Could mypy do the same?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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 reproducing the provided Base/Sub example with mypy 1.0.0 and compare the diagnostics for foo and goo with the intended Never behavior. The work is done when a zero-argument subclass method can be declared as uncallable without a type: ignore and the goo override is handled consistently with the Liskov substitution rule.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.