Duplicate keys cause earlier TypedDict values to be skipped during type checking
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Description
Bug Report
When a dictionary literal used to construct a TypedDict contains duplicate
keys, mypy only type-checks the final value for that key. Earlier value
expressions are skipped entirely.
This can hide real errors because Python still evaluates every value expression
in the dictionary literal, including values that are later overwritten by a
duplicate key.
To Reproduce
from typing import TypedDict
class Payload(TypedDict):
value: int
def parse(value: str) -> int:
return len(value)
payload = Payload({"value": parse(123), "value": 0})
$ mypy --show-error-codes --no-incremental example.py
Success: no issues found in 1 source file
Running the program demonstrates that the skipped expression is evaluated:
TypeError: object of type 'int' has no len()
Expected Behavior
Mypy should type-check every value expression in the dictionary literal, even
if a later duplicate key determines the final value of the TypedDict field.
In this example, it should report an error similar to:
error: Argument 1 to "parse" has incompatible type "int"; expected "str" [arg-type]
The same expression is correctly rejected when the target is a regular
dict[str, int]. The issue also occurs with a contextually typed literal:
payload: Payload = {"value": parse(123), "value": 0}
Actual Behavior
Mypy reports no issues because only the last value associated with the
duplicate key is checked.
Additional Context
The current implementation replaces the previously collected expression
without type-checking it and has a TODO to type-check all duplicate-key values:
PR #15425 also mentioned repeated TypedDict keys as a known limitation, but I
could not find an existing issue that tracks it:
https://github.com/python/mypy/pull/15425
Environment Used to Reproduce
- Mypy versions used:
mypy 2.3.0 (compiled: yes)mypy 2.4.0+dev.6eb141f03a8b43c274f15cc4978d617a71d8f37e (compiled: no)
- Mypy command-line flags:
--show-error-codes --no-incremental - Mypy configuration options: none
- Python version used: 3.12.8
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at mypy/checkexpr.py around lines 839-842 and reproduce the issue with example.py using the provided mypy command. Trace how duplicate TypedDict keys replace earlier expressions; done means every value expression is type-checked and the parse(123) case reports the expected arg-type error.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 74/100