inspect.signature does not work for datetime classes

@gvanrossum

BPO	44618
Nosy	@gvanrossum, @hongweipeng, @mauvilsa
PRs	bpo-40897:Give priority to using the current class constructor in `inspect.signature` #27177

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-07-13.07:41:18.210>
labels = ['type-bug', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.7', 'library']
title = 'inspect.signature does not work for datetime classes'
updated_at = <Date 2021-07-17.09:51:41.720>
user = 'https://github.com/mauvilsa'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-07-17.09:51:41.720>
actor = 'mauvilsa'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2021-07-13.07:41:18.210>
creator = 'mauvilsa'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 44618
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['397387', '397481', '397484', '397488', '397713', '397715']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['gvanrossum', 'hongweipeng', 'mauvilsa']
pr_nums = ['27177']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue44618'
versions = ['Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8', 'Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10']

Classes in the datetime module are implemented using __new__ with some named parameters. I want to be able to inspect their signature to know which are the names of the parameters it accepts like it works for most classes. However, this does not work for classes in the datetime module. I already mentioned this in https://bugs.python.org/issue40897 but now I am thinking this should be a separate issue so I am creating this one.

An example is the class timedelta. It has as parameters days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours and weeks. If I run the following script trying different python versions

for py in 36 37 38 39; do
  source py${py}/bin/activate
  echo "=== $(python3 --version) ==="
  python3 -c "
from datetime import timedelta
import inspect
print(inspect.signature(timedelta.__new__))
print(inspect.signature(timedelta.__init__))
inspect.signature(timedelta)
"
  deactivate
done

What I get is

=== Python 3.6.9 ===
(*args, **kwargs)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: no signature found for builtin type <class 'datetime.timedelta'>
=== Python 3.7.11 ===
(*args, **kwargs)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: no signature found for builtin type <class 'datetime.timedelta'>
=== Python 3.8.11 ===
(*args, **kwargs)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: no signature found for builtin type <class 'datetime.timedelta'>
=== Python 3.9.6 ===
(*args, **kwargs)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: no signature found for builtin type <class 'datetime.timedelta'>

Doesn’t it do that with any built in function? Try Len or open, for example. I think that’s a feature, at least not a bug specific to date time.

Doesn’t it do that with any built in function?

Sorry. I did not include what is the behavior for other classes. An example could be calendar.Calendar. In this case the signature gives:

>>> from calendar import Calendar
>>> import inspect
>>> print(inspect.signature(Calendar.__init__))
(self, firstweekday=0)
>>> print(inspect.signature(Calendar))
(firstweekday=0)

Note that the signature gives firstweekday which is the only init parameter. Calendar is not implemented with __new__ so getting the signature would be for object, that does not include named parameters.

It also works fine when you implement a class with __new__. For example:

>>> class MyClass:
    def __new__(cls, paramA, paramB=1):
        obj = object.__new__(cls)
        obj.paramA = paramA
        obj.paramB = paramB
        return obj
>>> print(inspect.signature(MyClass.__new__))
(cls, paramA, paramB=1)
>>> print(inspect.signature(MyClass))
(paramA, paramB=1)

I do think it is a bug specific to the datetime classes.

You're right, it seems specific to built-in *classes* like those in datetime. We get the same with inspect.signature(int), since int is also a built-in class.

I don't know who maintains inspect, but it's not me. :-(

Also happens in python 3.10.

=== Python 3.10.0b4 ===

(*args, **kwargs)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: no signature found for builtin type <class 'datetime.timedelta'>

Since this is a problem with how the C extension is configured, maybe we could make some workaround where it calls the python implementation signature? Or encode it by hand?

>>> from _pydatetime import timedelta
... import inspect
... print(inspect.signature(timedelta.__new__))
... print(inspect.signature(timedelta.__init__))
... inspect.signature(timedelta)
... 
(cls, days=0, seconds=0, microseconds=0, milliseconds=0, minutes=0, hours=0, weeks=0)
(self, /, *args, **kwargs)
<Signature (days=0, seconds=0, microseconds=0, milliseconds=0, minutes=0, hours=0, weeks=0)>

#136573 fixes this issue, most cases. The only cases without signature/with unsupported signature are:

The tzinfo constructor. This is an abstract class, you should not create instances of it. There is a difference between Python and C implementations. Python implementation does not accept any argument, C implementation accepts any arguments.
The timezone constructor. Python implementation takes optional name argument with default value None. In C implementation, passing None and not passing anything give different results, so None cannot be used as the default value. help() shows it as timezone(offset, name=<unrepresentable>).
All replace() methods. They are the same as __replace__() methods, so we can give them the same signature, __replace__(self, /, **changes), but it does not show which keywords are accepted. So, help() shows the datetime.replace() signature as replace(self, /, year=unchanged, month=unchanged, day=unchanged, unchanged, minute=unchanged, second=unchanged, microsecond=unchanged, tzinfo=unchanged, *, fold=unchanged), which is not supported in inspect.signature().

To support this cases, we need a general solution in inspect.signature() (which would fix many other cases) and somehow resolve the differences between Python and C implementations. These are different issues.

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inspect.signature does not work for datetime classes #88784

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inspect.signature does not work for datetime classes #88784

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mauvilsa commented on Jul 13, 2021

gvanrossum commented on Jul 14, 2021

mauvilsa commented on Jul 14, 2021

gvanrossum commented on Jul 14, 2021

mauvilsa commented on Jul 17, 2021

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