I am looking to create a type alias that can take a generic that is not actually used in the alias. The reason is for self-documenting code, I am aware that no type checker will be able to actually check this. Here is what I mean:
from typing import TypeVar, Dict, Any
from dataclasses import dataclass
from dataclasses_json import dataclass_json, DataClassJsonMixin
JSON = Dict[str, Any] # Good enough json type for this demo
T = TypeVar("T", bound=DataClassJsonMixin)
JSONOf = JSON[T] # <-- mypy Problem: JSON takes no generic arguments
@dataclass_json # this just provides to_json/from_json to dataclasses, not important for question
@dataclass
class Person:
name: str
age: int
def add_person_to_db(person: JSONOf[Person]):
# just from reading the signature the user now knows what the input is
# If I just put JSON as a type, it is unclear
...
The problem is that the JSON type alias does not use the generic parameter, so it can not receive it. I would need to use it in the alias definition without actually doing something with it. I tried doing this with the PEP-593 Annotated type, but it does not work either (I can define it like below, but it still does not expect the generic argument):
from typing import Annotated
JSONOf = Annotated[JSON, T]
I would need to do something like (this does not exist):
from typing import ThrowAwayGeneric
JSONOf = ThrowAwayGeneric[JSON, T]
Is it possible to get something similar to type check? Once again: I am not actually interested in type checking the json data, I just want to provide a readable signature of the function. Using Dict[str, Any]
when actually type checking if completely fine.
The kind of brute-force approach would of course be to define an alias for each type, but that becomes tedious as there are many such types.
JSONOfPerson = JSON
I've came up with a few solutions:
JSONOf
a union of JSON
with another type that takes a Generic, crafting that type a way that it will never match anything, such as a Dict
with mutable keys:JSONOf = Union[JSON, Dict[List, T]] # List could be any mutable, including JSON itself
class JSONFrom(Generic[T]): pass # Name was chosen to look nice on mypy errors
JSONOf = Union[JSON, JSONFrom[T]]
Let's test it:
from typing import Generic, TypeVar, Dict, Any, Union
class DataClassJsonMixin: ...
class Person(DataClassJsonMixin): ...
JSON = Dict[str, Any] # Good enough json type for this demo
T = TypeVar("T", bound=DataClassJsonMixin)
# Solution 1: Union with impossible type that takes a Generic
# JSONOf = Union[JSON, Dict[JSON, T]]
# Solution 2: Union with custom generic class
class JSONFrom(Generic[T]):
# just a crude failsafe to prohibit instantiation
# could be improved with __new__, __init_subclasses__, etc
def __init__(self):
raise TypeError("Just dont!")
JSONOf = Union[JSON, JSONFrom[T]]
def add_person_to_db(person: JSONOf[Person]):
print(person)
try: reveal_type(person)
except NameError: pass
add_person_to_db({'id': 1234, 'name': 'Someone'}) # Checks
add_person_to_db("Not a JSON") # Check error by JSON
add_person_to_db(Person()) # Make sure it does not accept Person
try: someone: JSONFrom = JSONFrom() # Make sure it does not accept JSONFrom
except TypeError as e: print(e) # Nice try!
$ python3 test.py
{'id': 1234, 'name': 'Someone'}
Not a JSON
<__main__.Person object at 0x7fa258a7d128>
Just dont!
$ mypy test.py
test.py:22: note: Revealed type is "Union[builtins.dict[builtins.str, Any], test.JSONFrom[test.Person]]"
test.py:26: error: Argument 1 to "add_person_to_db" has incompatible type "str"; expected "Union[Dict[str, Any], JSONFrom[Person]]"
test.py:27: error: Argument 1 to "add_person_to_db" has incompatible type "Person"; expected "Union[Dict[str, Any], JSONFrom[Person]]"
Found 2 errors in 1 file (checked 1 source file)