typing — Support for type hints¶

Specification for the Python Type System¶

The canonical, up-to-date specification of the Python type system can be found at Specification for the Python type system.

Type aliases¶

A type alias is defined using the type statement, which creates an instance of TypeAliasType. In this example, Vector and list[float] will be treated equivalently by static type checkers:

type Vector = list[float]

def scale(scalar: float, vector: Vector) -> Vector:
    return [scalar * num for num in vector]

# passes type checking; a list of floats qualifies as a Vector.
new_vector = scale(2.0, [1.0, -4.2, 5.4])

Type aliases are useful for simplifying complex type signatures. For example:

from collections.abc import Sequence

type ConnectionOptions = dict[str, str]
type Address = tuple[str, int]
type Server = tuple[Address, ConnectionOptions]

def broadcast_message(message: str, servers: Sequence[Server]) -> None:
    ...

# The static type checker will treat the previous type signature as
# being exactly equivalent to this one.
def broadcast_message(
    message: str,
    servers: Sequence[tuple[tuple[str, int], dict[str, str]]]
) -> None:
    ...

The type statement is new in Python 3.12. For backwards compatibility, type aliases can also be created through simple assignment:

Vector = list[float]

Or marked with TypeAlias to make it explicit that this is a type alias, not a normal variable assignment:

from typing import TypeAlias

Vector: TypeAlias = list[float]

NewType¶

Use the NewType helper to create distinct types:

from typing import NewType

UserId = NewType('UserId', int)
some_id = UserId(524313)

The static type checker will treat the new type as if it were a subclass of the original type. This is useful in helping catch logical errors:

def get_user_name(user_id: UserId) -> str:
    ...

# passes type checking
user_a = get_user_name(UserId(42351))

# fails type checking; an int is not a UserId
user_b = get_user_name(-1)

You may still perform all int operations on a variable of type UserId, but the result will always be of type int. This lets you pass in a UserId wherever an int might be expected, but will prevent you from accidentally creating a UserId in an invalid way:

# 'output' is of type 'int', not 'UserId'
output = UserId(23413) + UserId(54341)

Note that these checks are enforced only by the static type checker. At runtime, the statement Derived = NewType('Derived', Base) will make Derived a callable that immediately returns whatever parameter you pass it. That means the expression Derived(some_value) does not create a new class or introduce much overhead beyond that of a regular function call.

More precisely, the expression some_value is Derived(some_value) is always true at runtime.

It is invalid to create a subtype of Derived:

from typing import NewType

UserId = NewType('UserId', int)

# Fails at runtime and does not pass type checking
class AdminUserId(UserId): pass

However, it is possible to create a NewType based on a ‘derived’ NewType:

from typing import NewType

UserId = NewType('UserId', int)

ProUserId = NewType('ProUserId', UserId)

and typechecking for ProUserId will work as expected.

See PEP 484 for more details.

Annotating callable objects¶

Functions – or other callable objects – can be annotated using collections.abc.Callable or deprecated typing.Callable. Callable[[int], str] signifies a function that takes a single parameter of type int and returns a str.

For example:

from collections.abc import Callable, Awaitable

def feeder(get_next_item: Callable[[], str]) -> None:
    ...  # Body

def async_query(on_success: Callable[[int], None],
                on_error: Callable[[int, Exception], None]) -> None:
    ...  # Body

async def on_update(value: str) -> None:
    ...  # Body

callback: Callable[[str], Awaitable[None]] = on_update

The subscription syntax must always be used with exactly two values: the argument list and the return type. The argument list must be a list of types, a ParamSpec, Concatenate, or an ellipsis (...). The return type must be a single type.

If a literal ellipsis ... is given as the argument list, it indicates that a callable with any arbitrary parameter list would be acceptable:

def concat(x: str, y: str) -> str:
    return x + y

x: Callable[..., str]
x = str     # OK
x = concat  # Also OK

Callable cannot express complex signatures such as functions that take a variadic number of arguments, overloaded functions, or functions that have keyword-only parameters. However, these signatures can be expressed by defining a Protocol class with a __call__() method:

from collections.abc import Iterable
from typing import Protocol

class Combiner(Protocol):
    def __call__(self, *vals: bytes, maxlen: int | None = None) -> list[bytes]: ...

def batch_proc(data: Iterable[bytes], cb_results: Combiner) -> bytes:
    for item in data:
        ...

def good_cb(*vals: bytes, maxlen: int | None = None) -> list[bytes]:
    ...
def bad_cb(*vals: bytes, maxitems: int | None) -> list[bytes]:
    ...

batch_proc([], good_cb)  # OK
batch_proc([], bad_cb)   # Error! Argument 2 has incompatible type because of
                         # different name and kind in the callback

Callables which take other callables as arguments may indicate that their parameter types are dependent on each other using ParamSpec. Additionally, if that callable adds or removes arguments from other callables, the Concatenate operator may be used. They take the form Callable[ParamSpecVariable, ReturnType] and Callable[Concatenate[Arg1Type, Arg2Type, ..., ParamSpecVariable], ReturnType] respectively.

Generics¶

Since type information about objects kept in containers cannot be statically inferred in a generic way, many container classes in the standard library support subscription to denote the expected types of container elements.

from collections.abc import Mapping, Sequence

class Employee: ...

# Sequence[Employee] indicates that all elements in the sequence
# must be instances of "Employee".
# Mapping[str, str] indicates that all keys and all values in the mapping
# must be strings.
def notify_by_email(employees: Sequence[Employee],
                    overrides: Mapping[str, str]) -> None: ...

Generic functions and classes can be parameterized by using type parameter syntax:

from collections.abc import Sequence

def first[T](l: Sequence[T]) -> T:  # Function is generic over the TypeVar "T"
    return l[0]

Or by using the TypeVar factory directly:

from collections.abc import Sequence
from typing import TypeVar

U = TypeVar('U')                  # Declare type variable "U"

def second(l: Sequence[U]) -> U:  # Function is generic over the TypeVar "U"
    return l[1]

Annotating tuples¶

For most containers in Python, the typing system assumes that all elements in the container will be of the same type. For example:

from collections.abc import Mapping

# Type checker will infer that all elements in ``x`` are meant to be ints
x: list[int] = []

# Type checker error: ``list`` only accepts a single type argument:
y: list[int, str] = [1, 'foo']

# Type checker will infer that all keys in ``z`` are meant to be strings,
# and that all values in ``z`` are meant to be either strings or ints
z: Mapping[str, str | int] = {}

list only accepts one type argument, so a type checker would emit an error on the y assignment above. Similarly, Mapping only accepts two type arguments: the first indicates the type of the keys, and the second indicates the type of the values.

Unlike most other Python containers, however, it is common in idiomatic Python code for tuples to have elements which are not all of the same type. For this reason, tuples are special-cased in Python’s typing system. tuple accepts any number of type arguments:

# OK: ``x`` is assigned to a tuple of length 1 where the sole element is an int
x: tuple[int] = (5,)

# OK: ``y`` is assigned to a tuple of length 2;
# element 1 is an int, element 2 is a str
y: tuple[int, str] = (5, "foo")

# Error: the type annotation indicates a tuple of length 1,
# but ``z`` has been assigned to a tuple of length 3
z: tuple[int] = (1, 2, 3)

To denote a tuple which could be of any length, and in which all elements are of the same type T, use the literal ellipsis ...: tuple[T, ...]. To denote an empty tuple, use tuple[()]. Using plain tuple as an annotation is equivalent to using tuple[Any, ...]:

x: tuple[int, ...] = (1, 2)
# These reassignments are OK: ``tuple[int, ...]`` indicates x can be of any length
x = (1, 2, 3)
x = ()
# This reassignment is an error: all elements in ``x`` must be ints
x = ("foo", "bar")

# ``y`` can only ever be assigned to an empty tuple
y: tuple[()] = ()

z: tuple = ("foo", "bar")
# These reassignments are OK: plain ``tuple`` is equivalent to ``tuple[Any, ...]``
z = (1, 2, 3)
z = ()

The type of class objects¶

A variable annotated with C may accept a value of type C. In contrast, a variable annotated with type[C] (or deprecated typing.Type[C]) may accept values that are classes themselves – specifically, it will accept the class object of C. For example:

a = 3         # Has type ``int``
b = int       # Has type ``type[int]``
c = type(a)   # Also has type ``type[int]``

Note that type[C] is covariant:

class User: ...
class ProUser(User): ...
class TeamUser(User): ...

def make_new_user(user_class: type[User]) -> User:
    # ...
    return user_class()

make_new_user(User)      # OK
make_new_user(ProUser)   # Also OK: ``type[ProUser]`` is a subtype of ``type[User]``
make_new_user(TeamUser)  # Still fine
make_new_user(User())    # Error: expected ``type[User]`` but got ``User``
make_new_user(int)       # Error: ``type[int]`` is not a subtype of ``type[User]``

The only legal parameters for type are classes, Any, type variables, and unions of any of these types. For example:

def new_non_team_user(user_class: type[BasicUser | ProUser]): ...

new_non_team_user(BasicUser)  # OK
new_non_team_user(ProUser)    # OK
new_non_team_user(TeamUser)   # Error: ``type[TeamUser]`` is not a subtype
                              # of ``type[BasicUser | ProUser]``
new_non_team_user(User)       # Also an error

type[Any] is equivalent to type, which is the root of Python’s metaclass hierarchy.

Annotating generators and coroutines¶

A generator can be annotated using the generic type Generator[YieldType, SendType, ReturnType]. For example:

def echo_round() -> Generator[int, float, str]:
    sent = yield 0
    while sent >= 0:
        sent = yield round(sent)
    return 'Done'

Note that unlike many other generic classes in the standard library, the SendType of Generator behaves contravariantly, not covariantly or invariantly.

The SendType and ReturnType parameters default to None:

def infinite_stream(start: int) -> Generator[int]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start += 1

It is also possible to set these types explicitly:

def infinite_stream(start: int) -> Generator[int, None, None]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start += 1

Simple generators that only ever yield values can also be annotated as having a return type of either Iterable[YieldType] or Iterator[YieldType]:

def infinite_stream(start: int) -> Iterator[int]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start += 1

Async generators are handled in a similar fashion, but don’t expect a ReturnType type argument (AsyncGenerator[YieldType, SendType]). The SendType argument defaults to None, so the following definitions are equivalent:

async def infinite_stream(start: int) -> AsyncGenerator[int]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start = await increment(start)

async def infinite_stream(start: int) -> AsyncGenerator[int, None]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start = await increment(start)

As in the synchronous case, AsyncIterable[YieldType] and AsyncIterator[YieldType] are available as well:

async def infinite_stream(start: int) -> AsyncIterator[int]:
    while True:
        yield start
        start = await increment(start)

Coroutines can be annotated using Coroutine[YieldType, SendType, ReturnType]. Generic arguments correspond to those of Generator, for example:

from collections.abc import Coroutine
c: Coroutine[list[str], str, int]  # Some coroutine defined elsewhere
x = c.send('hi')                   # Inferred type of 'x' is list[str]
async def bar() -> None:
    y = await c                    # Inferred type of 'y' is int

User-defined generic types¶

A user-defined class can be defined as a generic class.

from logging import Logger

class LoggedVar[T]:
    def __init__(self, value: T, name: str, logger: Logger) -> None:
        self.name = name
        self.logger = logger
        self.value = value

    def set(self, new: T) -> None:
        self.log('Set ' + repr(self.value))
        self.value = new

    def get(self) -> T:
        self.log('Get ' + repr(self.value))
        return self.value

    def log(self, message: str) -> None:
        self.logger.info('%s: %s', self.name, message)

This syntax indicates that the class LoggedVar is parameterised around a single type variable T . This also makes T valid as a type within the class body.

Generic classes implicitly inherit from Generic. For compatibility with Python 3.11 and lower, it is also possible to inherit explicitly from Generic to indicate a generic class:

from typing import TypeVar, Generic

T = TypeVar('T')

class LoggedVar(Generic[T]):
    ...

Generic classes have __class_getitem__() methods, meaning they can be parameterised at runtime (e.g. LoggedVar[int] below):

from collections.abc import Iterable

def zero_all_vars(vars: Iterable[LoggedVar[int]]) -> None:
    for var in vars:
        var.set(0)

A generic type can have any number of type variables. All varieties of TypeVar are permissible as parameters for a generic type:

from typing import TypeVar, Generic, Sequence

class WeirdTrio[T, B: Sequence[bytes], S: (int, str)]:
    ...

OldT = TypeVar('OldT', contravariant=True)
OldB = TypeVar('OldB', bound=Sequence[bytes], covariant=True)
OldS = TypeVar('OldS', int, str)

class OldWeirdTrio(Generic[OldT, OldB, OldS]):
    ...

Each type variable argument to Generic must be distinct. This is thus invalid:

from typing import TypeVar, Generic
...

class Pair[M, M]:  # SyntaxError
    ...

T = TypeVar('T')

class Pair(Generic[T, T]):   # INVALID
    ...

Generic classes can also inherit from other classes:

from collections.abc import Sized

class LinkedList[T](Sized):
    ...

When inheriting from generic classes, some type parameters could be fixed:

from collections.abc import Mapping

class MyDict[T](Mapping[str, T]):
    ...

In this case MyDict has a single parameter, T.

Using a generic class without specifying type parameters assumes Any for each position. In the following example, MyIterable is not generic but implicitly inherits from Iterable[Any]:

from collections.abc import Iterable

class MyIterable(Iterable): # Same as Iterable[Any]
    ...

User-defined generic type aliases are also supported. Examples:

from collections.abc import Iterable

type Response[S] = Iterable[S] | int

# Return type here is same as Iterable[str] | int
def response(query: str) -> Response[str]:
    ...

type Vec[T] = Iterable[tuple[T, T]]

def inproduct[T: (int, float, complex)](v: Vec[T]) -> T: # Same as Iterable[tuple[T, T]]
    return sum(x*y for x, y in v)

For backward compatibility, generic type aliases can also be created through a simple assignment:

from collections.abc import Iterable
from typing import TypeVar

S = TypeVar("S")
Response = Iterable[S] | int

User-defined generics for parameter expressions are also supported via parameter specification variables in the form [**P]. The behavior is consistent with type variables’ described above as parameter specification variables are treated by the typing module as a specialized type variable. The one exception to this is that a list of types can be used to substitute a ParamSpec:

>>> class Z[T, **P]: ...  # T is a TypeVar; P is a ParamSpec
...
>>> Z[int, [dict, float]]
__main__.Z[int, [dict, float]]

Classes generic over a ParamSpec can also be created using explicit inheritance from Generic. In this case, ** is not used:

from typing import ParamSpec, Generic

P = ParamSpec('P')

class Z(Generic[P]):
    ...

Another difference between TypeVar and ParamSpec is that a generic with only one parameter specification variable will accept parameter lists in the forms X[[Type1, Type2, ...]] and also X[Type1, Type2, ...] for aesthetic reasons. Internally, the latter is converted to the former, so the following are equivalent:

>>> class X[**P]: ...
...
>>> X[int, str]
__main__.X[[int, str]]
>>> X[[int, str]]
__main__.X[[int, str]]

Note that generics with ParamSpec may not have correct __parameters__ after substitution in some cases because they are intended primarily for static type checking.

A user-defined generic class can have ABCs as base classes without a metaclass conflict. Generic metaclasses are not supported. The outcome of parameterizing generics is cached, and most types in the typing module are hashable and comparable for equality.

The Any type¶

A special kind of type is Any. A static type checker will treat every type as being compatible with Any and Any as being compatible with every type.

This means that it is possible to perform any operation or method call on a value of type Any and assign it to any variable:

from typing import Any

a: Any = None
a = []          # OK
a = 2           # OK

s: str = ''
s = a           # OK

def foo(item: Any) -> int:
    # Passes type checking; 'item' could be any type,
    # and that type might have a 'bar' method
    item.bar()
    ...

Notice that no type checking is performed when assigning a value of type Any to a more precise type. For example, the static type checker did not report an error when assigning a to s even though s was declared to be of type str and receives an int value at runtime!

Furthermore, all functions without a return type or parameter types will implicitly default to using Any:

def legacy_parser(text):
    ...
    return data

# A static type checker will treat the above
# as having the same signature as:
def legacy_parser(text: Any) -> Any:
    ...
    return data

This behavior allows Any to be used as an escape hatch when you need to mix dynamically and statically typed code.

Contrast the behavior of Any with the behavior of object. Similar to Any, every type is a subtype of object. However, unlike Any, the reverse is not true: object is not a subtype of every other type.

That means when the type of a value is object, a type checker will reject almost all operations on it, and assigning it to a variable (or using it as a return value) of a more specialized type is a type error. For example:

def hash_a(item: object) -> int:
    # Fails type checking; an object does not have a 'magic' method.
    item.magic()
    ...

def hash_b(item: Any) -> int:
    # Passes type checking
    item.magic()
    ...

# Passes type checking, since ints and strs are subclasses of object
hash_a(42)
hash_a("foo")

# Passes type checking, since Any is compatible with all types
hash_b(42)
hash_b("foo")

Use object to indicate that a value could be any type in a typesafe manner. Use Any to indicate that a value is dynamically typed.

Nominal vs structural subtyping¶

Initially PEP 484 defined the Python static type system as using nominal subtyping. This means that a class A is allowed where a class B is expected if and only if A is a subclass of B.

This requirement previously also applied to abstract base classes, such as Iterable. The problem with this approach is that a class had to be explicitly marked to support them, which is unpythonic and unlike what one would normally do in idiomatic dynamically typed Python code. For example, this conforms to PEP 484:

from collections.abc import Sized, Iterable, Iterator

class Bucket(Sized, Iterable[int]):
    ...
    def __len__(self) -> int: ...
    def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[int]: ...

PEP 544 allows to solve this problem by allowing users to write the above code without explicit base classes in the class definition, allowing Bucket to be implicitly considered a subtype of both Sized and Iterable[int] by static type checkers. This is known as structural subtyping (or static duck-typing):

from collections.abc import Iterator, Iterable

class Bucket:  # Note: no base classes
    ...
    def __len__(self) -> int: ...
    def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[int]: ...

def collect(items: Iterable[int]) -> int: ...
result = collect(Bucket())  # Passes type check

Moreover, by subclassing a special class Protocol, a user can define new custom protocols to fully enjoy structural subtyping (see examples below).

Module contents¶

The typing module defines the following classes, functions and decorators.