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Need for a few corrections/updates regarding the inspect.ismethoddescriptor()'s and inspect.isdatadescriptor()'s docs and unit tests #122102
Description
Documentation
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The main correction that needs to be made regards this fragment of the docs of inspect.ismethoddescriptor():
Return
Trueif the object is a method descriptor, but not if ismethod(), isclass(), isfunction() or isbuiltin() are true.The problem is that, in fact, the
inspect.ismethoddescriptor()function does not engage theinspect.isbuiltin()function at all (whereas it does engage the rest of the said functions).(As it seems, the mistaken statement was introduced long ago...)
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Another thing worth fixing is the lack of the information that the inspect.isdatadescriptor() function also returns False if any of the ismethod(), isclass() or isfunction() tests are true.
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There are also a few other fragments of the docs of those two functions (
inspect.ismethoddescriptor()andinspect.isdatadescriptor()) which seem to me worth updating/rewording... -
Naturally, it also seems a good idea to update the docstrings of those two functions (where applicable).
All those improvements have been proposed by submitting the first PR attached to this issue [update: merged].
Tests
By the way, it seems worth to make the unit tests for those two functions be more comprehensive as well as consistent with each other.
The tests-related improvements have been proposed by submitting the second PR attached to this issue.
Linked PRs
- gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in
inspect#122104 - gh-122102: Improve tests for descriptor-related tools in
inspect#122144 - [3.15] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in
inspect(GH-122104) #153948 - [3.14] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in
inspect(GH-122104) #153949 - [3.13] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in
inspect(GH-122104) #153950
Activity
zuo commentedon Jul 21, 2024
See also:
(+ related PRs).
zuo commentedon Jul 21, 2024
PS The documentation fixes/improvements seem worth applying to all supported Python versions: from 3.8 through 3.14.
pythongh-122102: Fix/improve docs + tests of descriptor tools in `ins…
pythongh-122102: Fix/improve docs of `inspect.is{data,method}descript…
pythongh-122102: Fix/improve docstrings of `inspect.is{data,method}de…
pythongh-122102: Improve tests of `inspect.is{data,method}descriptor()`
gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in `inspect` (G…
[3.14] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in `in…
[3.13] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in `in…
[3.15] gh-122102: Fix/improve docs of descriptor-related tools in `in…
zuo commentedon Jul 23, 2026
@zware Hello, Zachary! :) It was very nice to meet you during the sprint!
One minor question: should I close this issue (as completed), or only a core developer is entitled to do this?
zware commentedon Jul 23, 2026
I think we're not quite done here yet; the test update PR is still open :)