[Python-bugs-list] [ python-Bugs-652888 ] bad documentation for the "type" builtin

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Bugs item #652888, was opened at 2002-12-12 15:36
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https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=105470&aid=652888&group_id=5470

Category: Documentation
Group: Python 2.2.2
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Michele Simionato (michele_s)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: bad documentation for the "type" builtin

Initial Comment:
After a discussion on comp.lang.python

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=7h38yyvgto8.fsf%40pc150.maths.bris.ac.uk&prev=/groups%3Fdq%3D%26num%3D25%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3Dcomp.lang.python%26start%3D0

I was suggested to submit a bug report about the
documentation of the 
built-in "type". The official 2.2.2 documentation says:

type(object) 
      Return the type of an object. The return value is
a type object. 
      The standard module types defines names for all
built-in types. 
      For instance: 

            >>> import types
            >>> if type(x) == types.StringType: print
"It's a string"

This is misleading since the module types does not
contains all possible types,
for instance does not contain StaticMethodType (which I
was looking for). 
Moreover, people pointed out much better idioms, like

            >>> if type(x) is str:  print "It's a
string"

or even (without using type)

            >>> if isinstance(x, str): print "It's not
a moose!"

Moreover, I would be happy to see in the documentation
of the types
module a sentence about the alternative ways of
retrieving the type 
of an object.

--
Michele Simionato - Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
210 Allen Hall Pittsburgh PA 15260 U.S.A.
Phone: 001-412-624-9041 Fax: 001-412-624-9163
Home-page: http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~micheles/


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