Clarify the float/int/complex special case
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- Python
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Description
The typing spec currently says this:
Python’s numeric types complex, float and int are not subtypes of each other, but to support common use cases, the type system contains a straightforward shortcut: when an argument is annotated as having type float, an argument of type int is acceptable; similar, for an argument annotated as having type complex, arguments of type float or int are acceptable.
This is helpful in that it clarifies that there is not a subtype relationship here. It remains unclear (to me, at least) in the following ways:
- It implies that this special case applies only to function argument annotations, and not to any other annotation (e.g. an annotation of the type of an attribute of a class). I find this surprising, but perhaps it is intended? I think it is surprising enough that if it's intended, the wording should be even clearer, and explicitly show examples where the special case does not apply outside an argument annotation.
- The wording "is acceptable" in the absence of a subtype relationship does not clarify how this special case actually fits into the type system; we can accept an
intto afloattyped argument, but then how do we type that name within the function body? If what we actually mean here is thatfloatshould be interpreted asfloat | int, then we should say that clearly.
There was some discussion of this on https://github.com/python/typing/issues/1663, which is about the different but related question of whether to mention the numeric tower and PEP 3141.
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Research direction
Start with the quoted numeric-types section of the typing spec and review the related discussion in typing/issues/1663. Resolve whether the shortcut applies only to function arguments and how the accepted type is understood inside the function, then update the wording with examples and a precise definition of what "done" means.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100