Python Type hinting with curses - python

I'm trying to figure out what to put in my type annotation at the top of this function.
I have the following trivial example:
import curses
def main(stdscr):
stdscr.clear()
stdscr.addstr(2, 0, "What is the type of stdscr?")
stdscr.addstr(5, 0, "It is: {}".format(type(stdscr)))
stdscr.refresh()
stdscr.getkey()
curses.wrapper(main)
This returns <type '_curses.curses window'>. This doesn't seem like it will work with Type hinting as it has a space in it. The expected result would be WindowObject listed in the documentation. I can't find a path to WindowObject in the curses module itself. EDIT: The documentation is incorrect here.
How do I write main with accurate type annotation?

Unfortunately, the curses module does not appear to be fully typed within typeshed. There was some preliminary work done a few months ago, but the Windows object has not been added yet. You can check the Python 3 'curses' stubs for yourself here and here.
Currently, the stubs default to typing curses.wrapper as:
def wrapper(func, *args, **kwds): ...
...which, in turn, is equivalent to:
def wrapper(func: Callable[..., Any], *args: Any, **kwds: Any): ...
So, that means that there really is no suitable type to assign to your main function's parameter at the moment, apart from Any.
That said, if you're up for it, you might be able to contribute some stubs to complete the curses module yourself! It doesn't seem like the Window object is that terribly complex and should hopefully be relatively straightforward to type.
The main complication might be hammering out where exactly the 'Window' object should be imported from, if it doesn't exist within the curses module itself. You might perhaps want to stick the 'Windows' object within the typing module itself, just like typing.re.Pattern and typing.re.Match.

Your problem is that the type you spect is just not the real type of the object, the method type() always tells you the type correctly, so by sure the doc. is wrong.

Related

declare variable type inside function

I am defining a function that gets pdf in bytes, so I wrote:
def documents_extractos(pdf_bytes: bytes):
pass
When I call the function and unfortunately pass a wrong type, instead of bytes let's say an int, why I don't get an error? I have read the documentation regarding typing but I don't get it. Why is the purpose of telling the function that the variable shoudl be bytes but when you pass and int there is no error? This could be handle by a isinstance(var, <class_type>) right? I don't understand it =(
Type hints are ignored at runtime.
At the top of the page, the documentation that you've linked contains a note that states (emphasis mine):
The Python runtime does not enforce function and variable type annotations. They can be used by third party tools such as type checkers, IDEs, linters, etc.
The purpose of type hints is for static typechecking tools (e.g. mypy), which use static analysis to verify that your code respects the written type hints. These tools must be run as a separate process. Their primary use is to ensure that new changes in large codebases do not introduce potential typing issues (which can eventually become latent bugs that are difficult to resolve).
If you want explicit runtime type checks (e.g. to raise an Exception if a value of a wrong type is passed into a function), use isinstance().
By default python ignores type hints at runtime, however python preserves the type information when the code is executed. Thanks to this library authors can implement runtime type checking packages such as typeguard, pydantic or beartype.
If you don't want to use isinstance checks yourself, you can use one of those libraries.
Typeguard example:
main.py:
from typeguard import importhook
importhook.install_import_hook('mypack')
import mypack
mypack.documents_extractos("test")
mypack.py
def documents_extractos(pdf_bytes: bytes):
pass
When you run python3 main.py you will get error TypeError: type of argument "pdf_bytes" must be bytes-like; got str instead

Mypy doesn't typecheck function with Type[NamedTuple]

I have a function that accepts a class that derives from NamedTuple and converts it into a schema. However when I run MyPy on the following code it fails with Argument 1 to "to_schema" has incompatible type "Type[Foo]"; expected "Type[NamedTuple]"
from typing import NamedTuple, Type
def to_schema(named_tuple: Type[NamedTuple]):
pass
class Foo(NamedTuple):
pass
to_schema(Foo)
Is there a way to properly type the code so that it typechecks with MyPy?
Edit:
Python documentation states that Type[Foo] accepts any subclasses of Foo (https://docs.python.org/3/library/typing.html#typing.Type). I have multiple subclasses of NamedTuple, for entities in our data model, so I'm looking for a way to annotate the function in a way that would typecheck.
The root issue with your code is that NamedTuple is not an actual type -- it's actually just a special sort of "type constructor" that synthesizes an entirely new class and type. E.g. if you try printing out the value of Foo.__mro__, you'll see (<class '__main__.Foo'>, <class 'tuple'>, <class 'object'>) -- NamedTuple is not present there at all.
That means that NamedTuple isn't actually a valid type to use at all -- in that regard, it's actually a little surprising to me that mypy just silently lets you construct Type[NamedTuple] to begin with.
To work around this, you have several potential approaches:
Rather then using Type[NamedTuple], use either Type[tuple] or Type[Tuple[Any]].
Your Foo genuinely is a subtype of a tuple, after all.
If you need methods or fields that are specifically present only in namedtuples, use a custom protocol. For example, if you particularly need the _asdict method in namedtuples, you could do:
from typing_extensions import Protocol
class NamedTupleProto(Protocol):
def _asdict(self) -> Dict[str, Any]: ...
def to_schema(x: Type[NamedTupleProto]) -> None: pass
class Foo(NamedTuple):
pass
to_schema(Foo)
Note that you will need to install the typing_extensions third party library to use this, though there are plans to formalize Protocols and add it to Python at some point. (I forget if the plan was Python 3.7 or 3.8).
Add a type ignore or a cast on the call to to_schema to silence mypy. This isn't the greatest solution, but is also the quickest.
For related discussion, see this issue. Basically, there's consensus on the mypy team that somebody ought to do something about this NamedTuple thing, whether it's by adding an error message or by adding an officially sanctioned protocol, but I think people are too busy with other tasks/bugs to push this forward. (So if you're bored and looking for something to do...)

How to use an object's type in python?

I'm wanting to go through a list of objects so that my PyCharm IDE knows what type each list item is:
For example, say I know that each item in a list is an class instance of type 'myClass' - how do I use this to cast my objects so that my ide can help with code completion?
for i in range(len(myList)):
myClass(myList[i]).myClassProperty .....
I know how to do it in Delphi (something like the above) but not in python.
Thanks
In PyCharm, you can use Type Hinting:
class Bar:
def __init__(self,bar):
self.bar = bar
def do_bar(self):
return self.bar
def foo(x):
for el in x: # type: Bar
el.do_bar()
bars = [Bar('hello'), Bar('World')]
foo(bars)
You can't get code completion similar to Java or C++ in dynamically typed, interpreted language.There is no casting, because you don't need it in python. A function works for a given object if it has needed methods implemented, type is irrelevant to the language at this point. It is good practice though to leave some runtime checks using isinstance, if you expect your argument to be e.g. a dict. Otherwise you will end up with many difficult bugs.
As for code completion in python there are two solutions I find useful. The best IDEs around here are probably PyCharm https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/ and PyDev the Eclipse Plugin http://www.pydev.org/manual_101_install.html. They provide some code completion.
The other is interactive console Jupyter http://jupyter.org/. As you write your code, you could execute it in chunks (cells) and easily see object methods or fields, using not the type information, but the object itself existing in memory. This is very good for data analysis or playing with framework you don't know well.

Python: tell my IDE what type an object is

When I write a function in Python (v2.7), I very often have a type in mind for one of the arguments. I'm working with the unbelievably brilliant pandas library at the movemement, so my arguments are often 'intended' to be pandas.DataFrames.
In my favorite IDE (Spyder), when you type a period . a list of methods appear. Also, when you type the opening parenthesis of a method, the docstring appears in a little window.
But for these things to work, the IDE has to know what type a variable is. But of course, it never does. Am I missing something obvious about how to write Pythonic code (I've read Python Is Not Java but it doesn't mention this IDE autocomplete issue.
Any thoughts?
I don't know if it works in Spyder, but many completion engines (e.g. Jedi) also support assertions to tell them what type a variable is. For example:
def foo(param):
assert isinstance(param, str)
# now param will be considered a str
param.|capitalize
center
count
decode
...
Actually I use IntelliJ idea ( aka pyCharm ) and they offer multiple ways to specify variable types:
1. Specify Simple Variable
Very simple: Just add a comment with the type information behind the definition. From now on Pycharm supports autcompletition! e.g.:
def route():
json = request.get_json() # type: dict
Source: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/type-hinting-in-pycharm.html
2. Specify Parameter:
Add three quote signs after the beginning of a method and the idea will autocomplete a docstring, as in the following example:
Source: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/using-docstrings-to-specify-types.html
(Currently on my mobile, going to make it pretty later)
If you're using Python 3, you can use function annotations. As an example:
#typechecked
def greet(name: str, age: int) -> str:
print("Hello {0}, you are {1} years old".format(name, age))
I don't use Spyder, but I would assume there's a way for it to read the annotations and act appropriately.
I don't know whether Spyder reads docstrings, but PyDev does:
http://pydev.org/manual_adv_type_hints.html
So you can document the expected type in the docstring, e.g. as in:
def test(arg):
'type arg: str'
arg.<hit tab>
And you'll get the according string tab completion.
Similarly you can document the return-type of your functions, so that you can get tab-completion on foo for foo = someFunction().
At the same time, docstrings make auto-generated documention much more helpful.
The problem is with the dynamic features of Python, I use Spyder and I've used a lot more of python IDEs (PyCharm, IDLE, WingIDE, PyDev, ...) and ALL of them have the problem you stated here. So, when I want code completion for help I just instantiate the variable to the type I want and then type ".", for example: suppose you know your var df will be a DataFrame in some piece of code, you can do this df = DataFrame() and for now on the code completion should work for you just do not forget to delete (or comment) the line df = DataFrame() when you finish editing the code.

How to get PyCharm to auto-complete code in methods?

When I'm using a 3rd party l
ibrary such as boto, PyCharm seems to be able to auto-complete quite nicely
However, as soon as I define a function of my own, auto-complete breaks down inside that function. I understand why, since I can't give the function any type information about its arguments, so it can't guess how to auto-complete. Is there a way around this issue?
Edit
I tried using the docstring (for Python 2), but still no auto-complete
def delete_oldest_backups(conn, backups_to_keep, backup_description):
"""
delete_oldest_backups(EC2Connection, int, string)
"""
(Also tried boto.ec2.connection.EC2Connection instead of just EC2Connection)
You can use type hints: http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/webhelp/type-hinting-in-pycharm.html
def some_method(self, conn):
"""
#type conn: EC2Connection
"""
conn.<autocomplete>
You can specify the type information about the parameters of the function using Python 3 parameter and return value annotations. If you're using Python 2, you can also specify information in the function's docstring. PyCharm understands the format used by docstrings of binary modules in the standard library, for example:
"""
foo(int, string) -> list
Returns the list of something
"""
In order for PyCharm to recognize an instance of an object and retrieve all its methods, we have to use the following statements. But I think that both is a terrible way of wasting programming and run time.
assert isinstance(instanceX, ClassOfInstanceX)
instanceX.{#list of method/properties appears}
Alternatively, you can also use the class name will recall the method or property everytime you want to invoke it and pass in the instance to the self parameter. But this is too verbose, for my liking, esp for nested class
ClassOfInstanceX.{#list of method/properties appears}
# then you will have...
ClassOfInstance.method(instanceX, args...)
You can install the library via pyCharm "package manager".
Go to Settings -> Project Interpreter -> Python Interpreters
And in the Packages list, click on install and search for the library you want to install
Once installed, auto-complete will be available on editor.
Hope this is what you are looking for.

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