The argparse documentation states that "type= can take any callable that takes a single string argument and returns the converted value". The following is an exception:

    >>> import argparse
    >>> ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    >>> ap.add_argument('foo', type={}.get)
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3/argparse.py", line 1294, in add_argument
        type_func = self._registry_get('type', action.type, action.type)
      File "/usr/lib/python3/argparse.py", line 1236, in _registry_get
        return self._registries[registry_name].get(value, default)
    TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'

Sadly, a method bound to an unhashable type is unhashable! (Of course, is trivial to use partial or lambda to make any function hashable.)

The offending line in _registry_get is intended to look up named types (or actions), so it perhaps only relevant for string type= and action= values, which could be handled explicitly instead of using dict.get(x, x) to handle both cases. Alternatively, the TypeError could be caught and default returned.

@paul can you take a look at this please.

This is a straight forward patch, modifying '_registry_get' to return 'default' if it gets this 'TypeError'. 'test_argparse.py' has a testcase based on jnothman's example. Temporarily it includes a skipped test that would pass the original code.

The alternative would be to add a note to the documentation to the effect that the 'type' must also be hashable. But for an edge condition like this, that may be more confusing than enlightening.

While 'dict(one=1, two=20).get' now works as a 'type' callable, it is not ideal. If there is no match it returns None. The alternative '.__getitem__' raises a KeyError. But '_get_values' handles TypeError and ValueErrors, the kinds returned by 'int' and 'float'. It also handles an ArgumentTypeError, giving a custom type more control over the error message. Is it worth noting something about the type errors in the documentation?

I've seen users make a different error with the type parameter - 'type=boolean', thinking this means the input should be converted to boolean. They are thinking of 'type' as a datatype, rather than a function that converts a string into something else. I don't know of a solution other than explaining that 'boolean()' does not act like 'int()'.

This patch also handles the 'action' case. However I can't think of a way write a Action subclass that would be unhashable. It would have to inherit from both Action and dict.

Clearly this is not in high demand

I've got confused with the "TypeError: unhashable type: 'dict'" error creating a choose-from-dictionary argument in Python 3.6. I used lambda as a workaround, but IMO it would be great to have this patch merged.

Hi bradengroom,
I have reviewed your PR, it's just a small thing! If you could update your PR, it would be amazing!

Thank you!

Luna and I talked a bit about this offline and we decided not to merge the PR (nor the original patch, which is the same). Instead Luna will add a note to the docs explaining the caveat.

Luna discovered that has actually been fixed in 3.8 (i.e. the master branch), by making {}.get hashable. So I'm closing this as fixed.