python / python/mypy

Argument "key" to "sorted" has incompatible type "Callable…"

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Description

Bug Report

I believe that I've found a bug in mypy, the following MRE should as far as I can tell not result in any typing errors at all, but it reports an error (and I've found two simple workarounds for which no error is reported, strengthening my belief that this is a bug and not intended behaviour).

To Reproduce

#!/usr/bin/python3

from collections.abc import Iterable
from typing import cast


def unproblematic(iter: Iterable[int]) -> None:
    print(iter)


def problematic(iter: Iterable[int | str]) -> None:
    print(iter)


def key(item: int) -> int:
    return -item


def main() -> None:
    items: list[int] = [3, 4, 1, 2]

    unproblematic(sorted(items, key=key))  # Works.
    problematic(sorted(items, key=key))  # Fails mypy arg-type.

    workaround = sorted(items, key=key)
    problematic(workaround)  # Works.

    problematic(cast(Iterable[int], sorted(items, key=key)))  # Works.


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Actual Behavior

$ mypy mre.py
mre.py:23: error: Argument "key" to "sorted" has incompatible type "Callable[[int], int]"; expected "Callable[[int | str], SupportsDunderLT[Any] | SupportsDunderGT[Any]]"  [arg-type]

Your Environment

$ mypy --version                
mypy 1.16.0 (compiled: yes)
$ python3 --version
Python 3.13.3

(If anyone can't trivially reproduce this, I'd be happy to provide more details about my environment.)

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 report from the MRE in mre.py with mypy 1.16.0 and Python 3.13.3, then compare the direct sorted(items, key=key) call with the two workarounds. Done means the direct call no longer reports the incompatible key argument while the example remains correctly typed.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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