polymorphic overloads on `list.__add__` and `dict.__or__` lead to divergences in type checkers.
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Description
The overloads on list.__add__ lead to divergent behavior between mypy and pyright when doing something as simple as a list concatenation
# Overloading looks unnecessary, but is needed to work around complex mypy problems
@overload
def __add__(self, value: list[_T], /) -> list[_T]: ...
@overload
def __add__(self, value: list[_S], /) -> list[_S | _T]: ...
Code sample in pyright playground, https://mypy-play.net/?mypy=latest&python=3.12&gist=abf6a8834020af17a16bd8cfb44b2f10
from typing import Any, overload
class ListA[T]: # emulates builtins list
@overload
def __add__(self, other: "ListA[T]", /) -> "ListA[T]": return ListA()
@overload
def __add__[S](self, other: "ListA[S]", /) -> "ListA[T | S]": return ListA()
class ListB[T]: # without overloads
def __add__[S](self, other: "ListB[S]", /) -> "ListB[T | S]": return ListB()
# mypy | pyright
reveal_type( list[str]() + list[str]() ) # list[str] | list[str] ✅️
reveal_type( list[str]() + list[int]() ) # list[str | int] | list[str | int] ✅️
reveal_type( list[str]() + list[Any]() ) # list[Any] | list[str] ❌️
reveal_type( ListA[str]() + ListA[str]() ) # ListA[str] | ListA[str] ✅️
reveal_type( ListA[str]() + ListA[int]() ) # ListA[str | int] | ListA[str | int] ✅️
reveal_type( ListA[str]() + ListA[Any]() ) # ListA[Any] | ListA[str] ❌️
reveal_type( ListB[str]() + ListB[str]() ) # ListB[str] | ListB[str] ✅️
reveal_type( ListB[str]() + ListB[int]() ) # ListB[str | int] | ListB[str | int] ✅️
reveal_type( ListB[str]() + ListB[Any]() ) # ListB[str | Any] | ListB[str | Any] ✅️
This ultimately causes some very annoying type errors when checking wrapper functions in pyright.
Code sample in pyright playground
from typing import Mapping, Any
# function with 2 optional arguments
def foo(arg: object, /, *, opt1: str = ..., opt2: int = ...) -> None: ...
# wrapper that forwards args via dict
def foo_wrapper(arg: object, foo_kwargs: Mapping[str, Any]) -> None:
# apply new defaults
foo_kwargs = {"opt1": "new_default"} | dict(foo_kwargs)
foo(arg, **foo_kwargs) # "str" cannot be assigned to parameter "opt2"
PR #14282 and #14284 show mypy-primer results of simplifying the overloads away from list.__add__ and dict.__or__.
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 with the overloads on list.add and dict.or, then review PRs #14282 and #14284 for the proposed simplification. Reproduce the list and dict examples with mypy and pyright, and use mypy-primer to verify that the chosen stub changes remove the divergent wrapper errors.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100