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19 changes: 19 additions & 0 deletions Doc/library/functools.rst
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Expand Up @@ -492,6 +492,25 @@ The :mod:`functools` module defines the following functions:
... print(arg.real, arg.imag)
...

For code that dispatches on a collections type, e.g. ``list``, but wants
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to typehint the items of the collection, e.g. ``list[int]``, then the
dispatch type should be passed explicitly to the decorator itself with the
typehint going into the function definition::

>>> @fun.register(list)
... def _(arg: list[int], verbose=False):
... if verbose:
... print("Enumerate this:")
... for i, elem in enumerate(arg):
... print(i, elem)

.. note::

At runtime the function will dispatch on an instance of a list regardless
of the type contained within the list i.e. ``[1,2,3]`` will be
dispatched the same as ``["foo", "bar", "baz"]``. The annontation
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provided in this example is for static type checkers only and has no
runtime application.
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To enable registering :term:`lambdas<lambda>` and pre-existing functions,
the :func:`register` attribute can also be used in a functional form::
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