Python Hints vs. Typing Hints
The difference between "Python hints" and "typing hints" is primarily one of scope and terminology, rather than distinct technologies.
In short: Typing hints are a subset of Python hints.
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View All TagsThe difference between "Python hints" and "typing hints" is primarily one of scope and terminology, rather than distinct technologies.
In short: Typing hints are a subset of Python hints.
This is a critical question for developers moving from dynamically-typed code to modern, type-hinted Python. The concise answer is: No, Python does not have mandatory type hints built into the language itself.
By default, the Python interpreter is dynamically typed and will ignore type hints entirely at runtime. However, you can make type hints mandatory and runtime-enforced by utilizing external tools and libraries.
This is a fundamental and often confusing concept when developers transition to using static type checking in Python: Python's type hints are advisory, not mandatory.
The core reason why passing None to a function expecting a specific type like str or int does not raise an error at runtime (on entrance) is that the Python interpreter, by default, ignores type hints.
The Pylance(reportMissingImports) error is one of the most common issues Python developers encounter in Visual Studio Code (VS Code). Pylance is a language server that provides intelligent code completion and type checking. This specific error means Pylance cannot find the installed package in the Python environment it is currently configured to inspect.
This issue is almost never a code problem; it is an environment configuration problem within VS Code.