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gh-91081: Add note on WeakKeyDictionary behavior when deleting a replaced entry #91499

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merged 9 commits into from
Dec 21, 2022
24 changes: 24 additions & 0 deletions Doc/library/weakref.rst
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -167,6 +167,30 @@ See :ref:`__slots__ documentation <slots>` for details.
application without adding attributes to those objects. This can be especially
useful with objects that override attribute accesses.

Note that when a key with equal value to an existing key (but not equal identity)
is inserted into the dictionary, it replaces the value but does not replace the
existing key. Due to this, when the reference to the original key is deleted, it
also deletes the entry in the dictionary::

>>> class T(str): pass
...
>>> k1, k2 = T(), T()
>>> d = weakref.WeakKeyDictionary()
>>> d[k1] = 1 # d = {k1: 1}
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>>> d[k2] = 2 # d = {k1: 2}
>>> del k1 # d = {}

A workaround would be to remove the key prior to reassignment::

>>> class T(str): pass
...
>>> k1, k2 = T(), T()
>>> d = weakref.WeakKeyDictionary()
>>> d[k1] = 1 # d = {k1: 1}
>>> del d[k1]
>>> d[k2] = 2 # d = {k2: 2}
>>> del k1 # d = {k2: 2}

.. versionchanged:: 3.9
Added support for ``|`` and ``|=`` operators, specified in :pep:`584`.

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