Type hinting in Python 2

Question

In PEP 484, type hinting was added to Python 3 with the inclusion of the typing module. Is there any way to do this in Python 2? All I can think of is having a decorator to add to methods to check types, but this would fail at runtime and not be caught earlier like the hinting would allow.

Answer 1

According to Suggested syntax for Python 2.7 and straddling code in PEP 484 which defined type hinting, there is an alternative syntax for compatibility with Python 2.7. It is however not mandatory so I don't know how well supported it is, but quoting the PEP:

Some tools may want to support type annotations in code that must be compatible with Python 2.7. For this purpose this PEP has a suggested (but not mandatory) extension where function annotations are placed in a # type: comment. Such a comment must be placed immediately following the function header (before the docstring). An example: the following Python 3 code:

def embezzle(self, account: str, funds: int = 1000000, *fake_receipts: str) -> None:
    """Embezzle funds from account using fake receipts."""
    <code goes here>

is equivalent to the following:

def embezzle(self, account, funds=1000000, *fake_receipts):
    # type: (str, int, *str) -> None
    """Embezzle funds from account using fake receipts."""
    <code goes here>

For mypy support, see Type checking Python 2 code.