From 6f35088dabb316fb1e9bf7c56a61421f5aa06223 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jeff Allen Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:02:27 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] gh-96397: Document that attributes need not be identifiers (GH-96454) Co-authored-by: C.A.M. Gerlach (cherry picked from commit 9a11ed8e50492d327e4de0a8f3a473e788b14a6f) Co-authored-by: Jeff Allen --- Doc/glossary.rst | 11 +++++++++-- Doc/library/functions.rst | 8 ++++++++ 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/glossary.rst b/Doc/glossary.rst index 24daf19f652aa5..aa9768f0353c2a 100644 --- a/Doc/glossary.rst +++ b/Doc/glossary.rst @@ -136,10 +136,17 @@ Glossary :exc:`StopAsyncIteration` exception. Introduced by :pep:`492`. attribute - A value associated with an object which is referenced by name using - dotted expressions. For example, if an object *o* has an attribute + A value associated with an object which is usually referenced by name + using dotted expressions. + For example, if an object *o* has an attribute *a* it would be referenced as *o.a*. + It is possible to give an object an attribute whose name is not an + identifier as defined by :ref:`identifiers`, for example using + :func:`setattr`, if the object allows it. + Such an attribute will not be accessible using a dotted expression, + and would instead need to be retrieved with :func:`getattr`. + awaitable An object that can be used in an :keyword:`await` expression. Can be a :term:`coroutine` or an object with an :meth:`__await__` method. diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst index e4c40cf023820b..d84977fd860dd7 100644 --- a/Doc/library/functions.rst +++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst @@ -392,6 +392,7 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order. string. The string must be the name of one of the object's attributes. The function deletes the named attribute, provided the object allows it. For example, ``delattr(x, 'foobar')`` is equivalent to ``del x.foobar``. + *name* need not be a Python identifier (see :func:`setattr`). .. _func-dict: @@ -724,6 +725,7 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order. value of that attribute. For example, ``getattr(x, 'foobar')`` is equivalent to ``x.foobar``. If the named attribute does not exist, *default* is returned if provided, otherwise :exc:`AttributeError` is raised. + *name* need not be a Python identifier (see :func:`setattr`). .. note:: @@ -1577,6 +1579,12 @@ are always available. They are listed here in alphabetical order. object allows it. For example, ``setattr(x, 'foobar', 123)`` is equivalent to ``x.foobar = 123``. + *name* need not be a Python identifier as defined in :ref:`identifiers` + unless the object chooses to enforce that, for example in a custom + :meth:`~object.__getattribute__` or via :attr:`~object.__slots__`. + An attribute whose name is not an identifier will not be accessible using + the dot notation, but is accessible through :func:`getattr` etc.. + .. note:: Since :ref:`private name mangling ` happens at