New submission from Karl O. Pinc: In the argparse library parser library, contrary to the documentation, parser-level defaults do not always override argument-level defaults.
https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser.set_defaults says "Note that parser-level defaults always override argument-level defaults:" (And so does the python 3.3 docs.) The docs then provide this example: >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default='bar') >>> parser.set_defaults(foo='spam') >>> parser.parse_args([]) Namespace(foo='spam') But it is only true that parser-level defaults override argument-level defaults when they are established after the argument is added. The output below shows an argument level default overrideing a parser level default. $ python3 Python 3.3.2 (default, Jun 4 2014, 11:36:37) [GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-4)] on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import argparse >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() >>> parser.set_defaults(foo='spam') >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default='bar') _StoreAction(option_strings=['--foo'], dest='foo', nargs=None, const=None, default='bar', type=None, choices=None, help=None, metavar=None) >>> parser.parse_args([]) Namespace(foo='bar') It seems that whichever default is set last is the one which is used. Or perhaps there are not argument level defaults and parser level defaults, there are just defaults, period. (It might, possibly, be nice if there _were_ both argument and parser level defaults and parser level defaults had priority. Then this would not be a documentation bug.) ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 239632 nosy: docs@python, kop priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: argparse: Parser level defaults do not always override argument level defaults type: behavior versions: Python 3.3 _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue23814> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com
