Introducing funcsigs

The Funcsigs Package

funcsigs is a backport of the PEP 362 function signature features from Python 3.3's inspect module. The backport is compatible with Python 2.6, 2.7 as well as 3.3 and up. 3.2 was supported by version 0.4, but with setuptools and pip no longer supporting 3.2, we cannot make any statement about 3.2 compatibility.

Compatibility

The funcsigs backport has been tested against:

• CPython 2.6
• CPython 2.7
• CPython 3.3
• CPython 3.4
• CPython 3.5
• CPython nightlies
• PyPy and PyPy3(currently failing CI)

Continuous integration testing is provided by Travis CI.

Under Python 2.x there is a compatibility issue when a function is assigned to the __wrapped__ property of a class after it has been constructed. Similiarily there under PyPy directly passing the __call__ method of a builtin is also a compatibility issues. Otherwise the functionality is believed to be uniform between both Python2 and Python3.

Issues

Source code for funcsigs is hosted on GitHub. Any bug reports or feature requests can be made using GitHub's issues system.

Example

To obtain a Signature object, pass the target function to the funcsigs.signature function.

>>> from funcsigs import signature
>>> def foo(a, b=None, *args, **kwargs):
...     pass
...
>>> sig = signature(foo)
>>> sig
<funcsigs.Signature object at 0x...>
>>> sig.parameters
OrderedDict([('a', <Parameter at 0x... 'a'>), ('b', <Parameter at 0x... 'b'>), ('args', <Parameter at 0x... 'args'>), ('kwargs', <Parameter at 0x... 'kwargs'>)])
>>> sig.return_annotation
<class 'funcsigs._empty'>

Introspecting callables with the Signature object

Note

This section of documentation is a direct reproduction of the Python standard library documentation for the inspect module.

The Signature object represents the call signature of a callable object and its return annotation. To retrieve a Signature object, use the signature function.

signature(callable)

Return a Signature object for the given callable:

>>> from funcsigs import signature
>>> def foo(a, *, b:int, **kwargs):
...     pass

>>> sig = signature(foo)

>>> str(sig)
'(a, *, b:int, **kwargs)'

>>> str(sig.parameters['b'])
'b:int'

>>> sig.parameters['b'].annotation
<class 'int'>

Accepts a wide range of python callables, from plain functions and classes to functools.partial objects.

Note

Some callables may not be introspectable in certain implementations of Python. For example, in CPython, built-in functions defined in C provide no metadata about their arguments.

A Signature object represents the call signature of a function and its return annotation. For each parameter accepted by the function it stores a Parameter object in its parameters collection.

Signature objects are immutable. Use Signature.replace to make a modified copy.

Signature.empty

A special class-level marker to specify absence of a return annotation.

Signature.parameters

An ordered mapping of parameters' names to the corresponding Parameter objects.

Signature.return_annotation

The "return" annotation for the callable. If the callable has no "return" annotation, this attribute is set to Signature.empty.

Signature.bind(args,*kwargs)

Create a mapping from positional and keyword arguments to parameters. Returns BoundArguments if *args and **kwargs match the signature, or raises a TypeError.

Signature.bind_partial(args,*kwargs)

Works the same way as Signature.bind, but allows the omission of some required arguments (mimics functools.partial behavior.) Returns BoundArguments, or raises a TypeError if the passed arguments do not match the signature.

Signature.replace(*[, parameters][, return_annotation])

Create a new Signature instance based on the instance replace was invoked on. It is possible to pass different parameters and/or return_annotation to override the corresponding properties of the base signature. To remove return_annotation from the copied Signature, pass in Signature.empty.

>>> def test(a, b):
...     pass
>>> sig = signature(test)
>>> new_sig = sig.replace(return_annotation="new return anno")
>>> str(new_sig)
"(a, b) -> 'new return anno'"

Parameter objects are immutable. Instead of modifying a Parameter object, you can use Parameter.replace to create a modified copy.

Parameter.empty

A special class-level marker to specify absence of default values and annotations.

Parameter.name

The name of the parameter as a string. Must be a valid python identifier name (with the exception of POSITIONAL_ONLY parameters, which can have it set to None).

Parameter.default

The default value for the parameter. If the parameter has no default value, this attribute is set to Parameter.empty.

Parameter.annotation

The annotation for the parameter. If the parameter has no annotation, this attribute is set to Parameter.empty.

Parameter.kind

Describes how argument values are bound to the parameter. Possible values (accessible via Parameter, like Parameter.KEYWORD_ONLY):

Name	Meaning
POSITIONAL_ONLY	Value must be supplied as a positional argument. Python has no explicit syntax for defining positional-only parameters, but many built-in and extension module functions (especially those that accept only one or two parameters) accept them.
POSITIONAL_OR_KEYWORD	Value may be supplied as either a keyword or positional argument (this is the standard binding behaviour for functions implemented in Python.)
VAR_POSITIONAL	A tuple of positional arguments that aren't bound to any other parameter. This corresponds to a *args parameter in a Python function definition.
KEYWORD_ONLY	Value must be supplied as a keyword argument. Keyword only parameters are those which appear after a * or *args entry in a Python function definition.
VAR_KEYWORD	A dict of keyword arguments that aren't bound to any other parameter. This corresponds to a **kwargs parameter in a Python function definition.

Example: print all keyword-only arguments without default values:

>>> def foo(a, b, *, c, d=10):
...     pass

>>> sig = signature(foo)
>>> for param in sig.parameters.values():
...     if (param.kind == param.KEYWORD_ONLY and
...                        param.default is param.empty):
...         print('Parameter:', param)
Parameter: c

Parameter.replace(*[, name][, kind][, default][, annotation])

Create a new Parameter instance based on the instance replaced was invoked on. To override a Parameter attribute, pass the corresponding argument. To remove a default value or/and an annotation from a Parameter, pass Parameter.empty.

>>> from funcsigs import Parameter
>>> param = Parameter('foo', Parameter.KEYWORD_ONLY, default=42)
>>> str(param)
'foo=42'

>>> str(param.replace()) # Will create a shallow copy of 'param'
'foo=42'

>>> str(param.replace(default=Parameter.empty, annotation='spam'))
"foo:'spam'"

Result of a Signature.bind or Signature.bind_partial call. Holds the mapping of arguments to the function's parameters.

BoundArguments.arguments

An ordered, mutable mapping (collections.OrderedDict) of parameters' names to arguments' values. Contains only explicitly bound arguments. Changes in arguments will reflect in args and kwargs.

Should be used in conjunction with Signature.parameters for any argument processing purposes.

Note

Arguments for which Signature.bind or Signature.bind_partial relied on a default value are skipped. However, if needed, it is easy to include them.

>>> def foo(a, b=10):
...     pass

>>> sig = signature(foo)
>>> ba = sig.bind(5)

>>> ba.args, ba.kwargs
((5,), {})

>>> for param in sig.parameters.values():
...     if param.name not in ba.arguments:
...         ba.arguments[param.name] = param.default

>>> ba.args, ba.kwargs
((5, 10), {})

BoundArguments.args

A tuple of positional arguments values. Dynamically computed from the arguments attribute.

BoundArguments.kwargs

A dict of keyword arguments values. Dynamically computed from the arguments attribute.

The args and kwargs properties can be used to invoke functions:

def test(a, *, b):
   ...

sig = signature(test)
ba = sig.bind(10, b=20)
test(*ba.args, **ba.kwargs)

362 - Function Signature Object.

The detailed specification, implementation details and examples.

Copyright

funcsigs is a derived work of CPython under the terms of the PSF License Agreement. The original CPython inspect module, its unit tests and documentation are the copyright of the Python Software Foundation. The derived work is distributed under the Apache License Version 2.0.