python / python/typeshed

type annotated arguments in zip function lead to wrong return types when using the star operator

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Description

This issue is a followup to the following issue:
https://github.com/microsoft/pylance-release/issues/3598

Here's the code that is wrongly annotated:

test_list: list[tuple[int, str]] = [(1, 'testa'), (2, 'testb')]

a: tuple[int]
b: tuple[str]

a, b = zip(*test_list)

Pylance warns about an assignment of typle[int | str] to the tuples a and b.
The tuple annotation is being converted to an Iterator annotation, which does not support a sequence of types (see Eric's reply to the previous issue for details). Therefore, the resulting tuples after the unpacking operation are not as precisely typed as they could be.

And here is the typeshed code that leads to the 'wrong' type annotations:

https://github.com/python/typeshed/blob/7b3fff714a48f0413141ba10344f9473e3ec4a18/stdlib/builtins.pyi#L1673-L1715

I'm not sure if it is currently possible to fix this. I had the idea of adding a type hint to the *args keyword, so something like this:

@overload
        def __new__(cls, __iter1: _T2:=Sequence[_T1], *args: _T2, strict: bool = ...) -> zip[tuple[_T1]]: 

I'm unsure if this is valid python syntax and if it would result in the desired behavior. I'm also unsure how python would decide between the proposed constructor and the one that is currently being used during typechecking my example:
https://github.com/python/typeshed/blob/7b3fff714a48f0413141ba10344f9473e3ec4a18/stdlib/builtins.pyi#L1675-L1676

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 annotated zip(*test_list) example and read the zip overloads in stdlib/builtins.pyi around lines 1673-1715. Review the linked typeshed issue and prior Pylance issue before evaluating an overload change. Done means the unpacked variables are inferred as tuple[int] and tuple[str] without assignment warnings.

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
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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