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[spec] Overload processing order

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
45/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Start by locating the typing specification section describing overload resolution and compare its current wording with the order-dependent examples in the issue. The work is done when the specification clearly states how overloads are processed in order and explains the shown int and str cases.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

topic: typing spec

It's my understanding that overloads are processed in order. I.e. given the following overloads:

@overload
def foo(x: int) -> None: ...
@overload
def foo(x: int | str) -> None: ...
@overload
def foo(x: str) -> None: ...

When called with an int, the first overload is matched, when called with a str, the second is matched. The third is never matched. (Not going into what happens when called with int | str.) Currently, this behavior is not mentioned in the spec.

Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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