Skip to content

GH-130750: Restore quoting of choices in argparse error messages to match documentation and improve clarity #144983

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
savannahostrowski wants to merge 3 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
+15 −8
Open

GH-130750: Restore quoting of choices in argparse error messages to match documentation and improve clarity #144983

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
3 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
4c79b5a
Ensure quotes around suggestions
savannahostrowski Feb 19, 2026
f29635d
📜🤖 Added by blurb_it.
blurb-it[bot] Feb 19, 2026
0330428
Merge branch 'main' into fix-suggestion
savannahostrowski Feb 19, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
8 changes: 7 additions & 1 deletion Lib/argparse.py
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2757,8 +2757,14 @@ def _check_value(self, action, value):
choices = iter(choices)

if value not in choices:
def _format_choice(choice):
# For enum members, use repr of the value, not the enum itself
if hasattr(choice, 'value'):
return repr(choice.value)
return repr(choice)

args = {'value': str(value),
'choices': ', '.join(map(str, action.choices))}
'choices': ', '.join(map(_format_choice, action.choices))}
msg = _('invalid choice: %(value)r (choose from %(choices)s)')

if self.suggest_on_error and isinstance(value, str):
Expand Down
14 changes: 7 additions & 7 deletions Lib/test/test_argparse.py
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -1123,7 +1123,7 @@ def test_invalid_enum_value_raises_error(self):
parser.add_argument('--color', choices=self.Color)
self.assertRaisesRegex(
argparse.ArgumentError,
r"invalid choice: 'yellow' \(choose from red, green, blue\)",
r"invalid choice: 'yellow' \(choose from 'red', 'green', 'blue'\)",
parser.parse_args,
['--color', 'yellow'],
)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2392,7 +2392,7 @@ def test_wrong_argument_error_with_suggestions(self):
with self.assertRaises(ArgumentParserError) as excinfo:
parser.parse_args(('bazz',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: 'bazz', maybe you meant 'baz'? (choose from bar, baz)",
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: 'bazz', maybe you meant 'baz'? (choose from 'bar', 'baz')",
excinfo.exception.stderr
)

Expand All @@ -2402,7 +2402,7 @@ def test_wrong_argument_error_no_suggestions(self):
with self.assertRaises(ArgumentParserError) as excinfo:
parser.parse_args(('bazz',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: 'bazz' (choose from bar, baz)",
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: 'bazz' (choose from 'bar', 'baz')",
excinfo.exception.stderr,
)

Expand All @@ -2415,7 +2415,7 @@ def test_wrong_argument_subparsers_with_suggestions(self):
parser.parse_args(('baz',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument {foo,bar}: invalid choice: 'baz', maybe you meant"
" 'bar'? (choose from foo, bar)",
" 'bar'? (choose from 'foo', 'bar')",
excinfo.exception.stderr,
)

Expand All @@ -2427,7 +2427,7 @@ def test_wrong_argument_subparsers_no_suggestions(self):
with self.assertRaises(ArgumentParserError) as excinfo:
parser.parse_args(('baz',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument {foo,bar}: invalid choice: 'baz' (choose from foo, bar)",
"error: argument {foo,bar}: invalid choice: 'baz' (choose from 'foo', 'bar')",
excinfo.exception.stderr,
)

Expand All @@ -2438,7 +2438,7 @@ def test_wrong_argument_with_suggestion_explicit(self):
parser.parse_args(('bazz',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: 'bazz', maybe you meant"
" 'baz'? (choose from bar, baz)",
" 'baz'? (choose from 'bar', 'baz')",
excinfo.exception.stderr,
)

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2468,7 +2468,7 @@ def test_suggestions_choices_mixed_types(self):
with self.assertRaises(ArgumentParserError) as excinfo:
parser.parse_args(('3',))
self.assertIn(
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: '3' (choose from 1, 2)",
"error: argument foo: invalid choice: '3' (choose from 1, '2')",
excinfo.exception.stderr,
)

Expand Down
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-02-19-04-40-57.gh-issue-130750.0hW52O.rst
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
Restore quoting of choices in :mod:`argparse` error messages for improved clarity and consistency with documentation. Enum members are handled specially to show just their quoted values.
Loading