PEP 585: Disallow isinstance([1, 2], list[str])

pep-0585.rst

@@ -165,8 +165,6 @@ parametrized collections, like::
 
     >>> l = list[str]()
     []
-    >>> isinstance([1, 2, 3], list[str])
-    True
     >>> list is list[str]
     False
     >>> list == list[str]
@@ -175,6 +173,12 @@ parametrized collections, like::
     True
     >>> list[str] == list[int]
     False
+    >>> isinstance([1, 2, 3], list[str])
+    TypeError: isinstance() arg 2 cannot be a parametrized generic
+    >>> issubclass(list, list[str])
+    TypeError: issubclass() arg 2 cannot be a parametrized generic
+    >>> isinstance(list[str], types.GenericAlias)
+    True
 
 Objects created with bare types and parametrized types are exactly the
 same.  The generic parameters are not preserved in instances created
@@ -301,6 +305,31 @@ including parallels of collections in the standard library.  Moreover,
 Python allows for instantiation of lists using ``list()`` and some
 builtin collections don't provide special syntax for instantiation.
 
+Making ``isinstance(obj, list[str])`` perform a check ignoring generics
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+An earlier version of this PEP suggested treating parametrized generics
+like ``list[str]`` as equivalent to their non-parametrized variants
+like ``list`` for purposes of ``isinstance()`` and ``issubclass()``.
+This would be symmetrical to how ``list[str]()`` creates a regular list.
+
+This design was rejected because ``isinstance()`` and ``issubclass()``
+checks with parametrized generics would read like element-by-element
+runtime type checks.  The result of those checks would be surprising,
+for example::
+
+    >>> isinstance([1, 2, 3], list[str])
+    True
+
+Note the object doesn't match the provided generic type but
+``isinstance()`` still returns ``True`` because it only checks whether
+the object is a list.
+
+If a library is faced with a parametrized generic and would like to
+perform an ``isinstance()`` check using the base type, that type can
+be retrieved using the ``__origin__`` attribute on the parametrized
+generic.
+
 Making ``isinstance(obj, list[str])`` perform a runtime type check
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