One of the most talked-about features in Python 3.5 is type hints.
An example of type hints is mentioned in this article and this one while also mentioning to use type hints responsibly. Can someone explain more about them and when they should be used and when not?
This question is related to
python
python-3.x
python-3.5
type-hinting
Type hint are a recent addition to a dynamic language where for decades folks swore naming conventions as simple as Hungarian (object label with first letter b = Boolean, c = character, d = dictionary, i = integer, l = list, n = numeric, s = string, t= tuple) were not needed, too cumbersome, but now have decided that, oh wait ... it is way too much trouble to use the language (type()) to recognize objects, and our fancy IDEs need help doing anything that complicated, and that dynamically assigned object values make them completely useless anyhow, whereas a simple naming convention could have resolved all of it, for any developer, at a mere glance.
The newly released PyCharm 5 supports type hinting. In their blog post about it (see Python 3.5 type hinting in PyCharm 5) they offer a great explanation of what type hints are and aren't along with several examples and illustrations for how to use them in your code.
Additionally, it is supported in Python 2.7, as explained in this comment:
PyCharm supports the typing module from PyPI for Python 2.7, Python 3.2-3.4. For 2.7 you have to put type hints in *.pyi stub files since function annotations were added in Python 3.0.
Adding to Jim's elaborate answer:
Check the typing
module -- this module supports type hints as specified by PEP 484.
For example, the function below takes and returns values of type str
and is annotated as follows:
def greeting(name: str) -> str:
return 'Hello ' + name
The typing
module also supports:
Type hints are for maintainability and don't get interpreted by Python. In the code below, the line def add(self, ic:int)
doesn't result in an error until the next return...
line:
class C1:
def __init__(self):
self.idn = 1
def add(self, ic: int):
return self.idn + ic
c1 = C1()
c1.add(2)
c1.add(c1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
File "<input>", line 5, in add
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'C1'
Source: Stackoverflow.com