How Python Type Hints Will Boost Your Productivity

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Type hints are one of the most impactful additions to the Python language in recent years. Combined with powerful IDEs and linters, type hints unlock autocomplete, early error detection, and overall provide a smoother development workflow.

While completely optional, adding type hints to your Python code can improve readability, catch bugs, and speed up development — which is why adopting them should be a no-brainer!

Leveraging Type Hints to Enhance Code Understanding

The main motivation behind type hints is communication — both with other developers and your future self!

By annotating the intended types of function parameters and return values, others can quickly reason about expectations when using your code without having to dive into implementation details.

For example:

def calculate_total(prices: list[float]) -> float:
    total = 0.0  
    for price in prices:
        total += price
    return total

The hints make it clear inputs should be a list of floats, and you will get a float back. Super straightforward!

Type hints complement docstring documentation by answering the “what” to docstrings explaining the “why” of code behavior.