python / python/mypy

Final (context-sensitive Literal) doesn't support type narrowing

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bug topic-final topic-literal-types topic-type-narrowing
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug Report

Maybe there's a reason this is not supported, but at a quick look it seems like it should work. When a union of context-sensitive Literals are used, it fails to perform type narrowing, whereas explicit Literals do work.

To Reproduce

from typing import Final, Literal

class TXTRecord:
    type: Final = "TXT"
    text: str = "Foo"

class ARecord:
    type: Final = "A"
    host: str = "192.168.1.1"

record: TXTRecord | ARecord
reveal_type(record.type)
if record.type == "TXT":
    print(record.text)  # error with Final, but not with Literal
else:
    print(record.host)  # error with Final, but not with Literal

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 running the provided Python reproduction and compare its narrowing behavior with the equivalent explicit Literal case. The work is done when the Final-based union narrows to TXTRecord and ARecord in the two branches without producing the reported attribute errors.

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
45/100

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