You are working in `/workspace/cpython`, a source tree checked out at the base commit for this task. Implement the requested behavior in the source tree, then run: ```bash lolbench-submit ``` Do not stop after editing files, running tests, or describing the solution. The task is complete only when `lolbench-submit` has created `/logs/artifacts/solution.patch`. If that file does not exist, continue working and run `lolbench-submit` again. That command writes your implementation diff to `/logs/artifacts/solution.patch`, which is the artifact the Harbor verifier will grade. Before running `lolbench-submit`, clean or revert any test files you created or modified; test files must not be included in the final `solution.patch`. This environment has no outbound internet access — `curl`/`wget`, `git fetch`/`clone`, package installs, and web fetch/search will all fail. Implement the requirements using only the code already in the workspace and your own knowledge; do not attempt to fetch or search external resources. Now please implement the following requirements in the source tree: --- ## Abstract This PEP introduces template strings for custom string processing. Template strings are a generalization of f-strings, using a `t` in place of the `f` prefix. Instead of evaluating to `str`, t-strings evaluate to a new type, `Template`: ```python template: Template = t"Hello {name}" ``` Templates provide developers with access to the string and its interpolated values *before* they are combined. This brings native flexible string processing to the Python language and enables safety checks, web templating, domain-specific languages, and more. ## Relationship With Other PEPs Python introduced f-strings in Python 3.6 with PEP 498. The grammar was then formalized in PEP 701 which also lifted some restrictions. This PEP is based on PEP 701. At nearly the same time PEP 498 arrived, PEP 501 was written to provide "i-strings" -- that is, "interpolation template strings". The PEP was deferred pending further experience with f-strings. Work on this PEP was resumed by a different author in March 2023, introducing "t-strings" as template literal strings, and built atop PEP 701. The authors of this PEP consider it to be a generalization and simplification of the updated work in PEP 501. (That PEP has also recently been updated to reflect the new ideas in this PEP.) ## Motivation Python f-strings are easy to use and very popular. Over time, however, developers have encountered limitations that make them [unsuitable for certain use cases](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.1/ref/utils/#django.utils.html.format_html). In particular, f-strings provide no way to intercept and transform interpolated values before they are combined into a final string. As a result, incautious use of f-strings can lead to security vulnerabilities. For example, a user executing a SQL query with `python:sqlite3` may be tempted to use an f-string to embed values into their SQL expression, which could lead to a [SQL injection attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection). Or, a developer building HTML may include unescaped user input in the string, leading to a [cross-site scripting (XSS)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting) vulnerability. More broadly, the inability to transform interpolated values before they are combined into a final string limits the utility of f-strings in more complex string processing tasks. Template strings address these problems by providing developers with access to the string and its interpolated values. For example, imagine we want to generate some HTML. Using template strings, we can define an `html()` function that allows us to automatically sanitize content: ```python evil = "" template = t"

{evil}

" assert html(template) == "

<script>alert('evil')</script>

" ``` Likewise, our hypothetical `html()` function can make it easy for developers to add attributes to HTML elements using a dictionary: ```python attributes = {"src": "shrubbery.jpg", "alt": "looks nice"} template = t"" assert html(template) == 'looks nice' ``` Neither of these examples is possible with f-strings. By providing a mechanism to intercept and transform interpolated values, template strings enable a wide range of string processing use cases. ## Specification ### Template String Literals This PEP introduces a new string prefix, `t`, to define template string literals. These literals resolve to a new type, `Template`, found in the standard library module `!string.templatelib`. The following code creates a `Template` instance: ```python from string.templatelib import Template template = t"This is a template string." assert isinstance(template, Template) ``` Template string literals support the full syntax of PEP 701. This includes the ability to nest template strings within interpolations, as well as the ability to use all valid quote marks (`'`, `"`, `'''`, and `"""`). Like other string prefixes, the `t` prefix must immediately precede the quote. Like f-strings, both lowercase `t` and uppercase `T` prefixes are supported. Like f-strings, t-strings may not be combined with `u` or the `b` prefix. Additionally, f-strings and t-strings cannot be combined, so the `ft` prefix is invalid. t-strings *may* be combined with the `r` prefix; see the `Raw Template Strings`_ section below for more information. ### The `Template` Type Template strings evaluate to an instance of a new immutable type, `!string.templatelib.Template`: ```python class Template: strings: tuple[str, ...] """ A non-empty tuple of the string parts of the template, with N+1 items, where N is the number of interpolations in the template. """ interpolations: tuple[Interpolation, ...] """ A tuple of the interpolation parts of the template. This will be an empty tuple if there are no interpolations. """ def __new__(cls, *args: str | Interpolation): """ Create a new Template instance. Arguments can be provided in any order. """ ... @property def values(self) -> tuple[object, ...]: """ Return a tuple of the `value` attributes of each Interpolation in the template. This will be an empty tuple if there are no interpolations. """ ... def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[str | Interpolation]: """ Iterate over the string parts and interpolations in the template. These may appear in any order. Empty strings will not be included. """ ... ``` The `strings` and `interpolations` attributes provide access to the string parts and any interpolations in the literal: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {name}" assert template.strings[0] == "Hello " assert template.interpolations[0].value == "World" ``` ### The `Interpolation` Type The `Interpolation` type represents an expression inside a template string. Like `Template`, it is a new class found in the `!string.templatelib` module: ```python class Interpolation: value: object expression: str conversion: Literal["a", "r", "s"] | None format_spec: str __match_args__ = ("value", "expression", "conversion", "format_spec") def __new__( cls, value: object, expression: str = "", conversion: Literal["a", "r", "s"] | None = None, format_spec: str = "", ): ... ``` The `Interpolation` type is shallow immutable. Its attributes cannot be reassigned. The `value` attribute is the evaluated result of the interpolation: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {name}" assert template.interpolations[0].value == "World" ``` When interpolations are created from a template string literal, the `expression` attribute contains the *original text* of the interpolation: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {name}" assert template.interpolations[0].expression == "name" ``` When developers explicitly construct an `Interpolation`, they may optionally provide a value for the `expression` attribute. Even though it is stored as a string, this *should* be a valid Python expression. If no value is provided, the `expression` attribute defaults to the empty string (`""`). We expect that the `expression` attribute will not be used in most template processing code. It is provided for completeness and for use in debugging and introspection. See both the `Common Patterns Seen in Processing Templates`_ section and the `Examples`_ section for more information on how to process template strings. The `conversion` attribute is the `optional conversion ` to be used, one of `r`, `s`, and `a`, corresponding to `repr()`, `str()`, and `ascii()` conversions. As with f-strings, no other conversions are supported: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {name!r}" assert template.interpolations[0].conversion == "r" ``` If no conversion is provided, `conversion` is `None`. The `format_spec` attribute is the `format specification `. As with f-strings, this is an arbitrary string that defines how to present the value: ```python value = 42 template = t"Value: {value:.2f}" assert template.interpolations[0].format_spec == ".2f" ``` Format specifications in f-strings can themselves contain interpolations. This is permitted in template strings as well; `format_spec` is set to the eagerly evaluated result: ```python value = 42 precision = 2 template = t"Value: {value:.{precision}f}" assert template.interpolations[0].format_spec == ".2f" ``` If no format specification is provided, `format_spec` defaults to an empty string (`""`). This matches the `format_spec` parameter of Python's `python:format` built-in. Unlike f-strings, it is up to code that processes the template to determine how to interpret the `conversion` and `format_spec` attributes. Such code is not required to use these attributes, but when present they should be respected, and to the extent possible match the behavior of f-strings. It would be surprising if, for example, a template string that uses `{value:.2f}` did not round the value to two decimal places when processed. ### The `Template.values` Property The `Template.values` property is a shortcut for accessing the `value` attribute of each `Interpolation` in the template and is equivalent to: ```python @property def values(self) -> tuple[object, ...]: return tuple(i.value for i in self.interpolations) ``` ### Iterating `Template` Contents The `Template.__iter__()` method provides a simple way to access the full contents of a template. It yields the string parts and interpolations in the order they appear, with empty strings omitted. The `__iter__()` method is equivalent to: ```python def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[str | Interpolation]: for s, i in zip_longest(self.strings, self.interpolations): if s: yield s if i: yield i ``` The following examples show the `__iter__()` method in action: ```python assert list(t"") == [] assert list(t"Hello") == ["Hello"] name = "World" template = t"Hello {name}!" contents = list(template) assert len(contents) == 3 assert contents[0] == "Hello " assert contents[1].value == "World" assert contents[1].expression == "name" assert contents[2] == "!" ``` Empty strings, which may be present in `Template.strings`, are not included in the output of the `__iter__()` method: ```python first = "Eat" second = "Red Leicester" template = t"{first}{second}" contents = list(template) assert len(contents) == 2 assert contents[0].value == "Eat" assert contents[0].expression == "first" assert contents[1].value == "Red Leicester" assert contents[1].expression == "second" ## However, the strings attribute contains empty strings: assert template.strings == ("", "", "") ``` Template processing code can choose to work with any combination of `strings`, `interpolations`, `values`, and `__iter__()` based on requirements and convenience. ### Processing Template Strings Developers can write arbitrary code to process template strings. For example, the following function renders static parts of the template in lowercase and interpolations in uppercase: ```python from string.templatelib import Template, Interpolation def lower_upper(template: Template) -> str: """Render static parts lowercased and interpolations uppercased.""" parts: list[str] = [] for item in template: if isinstance(item, Interpolation): parts.append(str(item.value).upper()) else: parts.append(item.lower()) return "".join(parts) name = "world" assert lower_upper(t"HELLO {name}") == "hello WORLD" ``` There is no requirement that template strings are processed in any particular way. Code that processes templates has no obligation to return a string. Template strings are a flexible, general-purpose feature. See the `Common Patterns Seen in Processing Templates`_ section for more information on how to process template strings. See the `Examples`_ section for detailed working examples. ### Template String Concatenation Template strings support explicit concatenation using `+`. Concatenation is supported for two `Template` instances via `Template.__add__()`: ```python name = "World" assert isinstance(t"Hello " + t"{name}", Template) assert (t"Hello " + t"{name}").strings == ("Hello ", "") assert (t"Hello " + t"{name}").values[0] == "World" ``` Implicit concatenation of two template string literals is also supported: ```python name = "World" assert isinstance(t"Hello " t"{name}", Template) assert (t"Hello " t"{name}").strings == ("Hello ", "") assert (t"Hello " t"{name}").values[0] == "World" ``` `Template` and `str` can be concatenated with `+`: `Template + str` appends the `str` as a static string part (extending the `Template`'s last string), and `str + Template` prepends it as a static string part; both return a new `Template`. Adjacent t-string and `str`/`f`/`r` string literals implicitly concatenate into a single `Template`, with the literal parts folded into the static strings. (This task targets the PR-132662 semantics, which permit `+` concatenation.) A `str` can also be incorporated explicitly through the `Template` constructor to make its role unambiguous. If the `str` is intended to be a static string part, it should be wrapped in a `Template`. If the `str` is intended to be an interpolation value, it should be wrapped in an `Interpolation` and passed to the `Template` constructor. For example: ```python name = "World" ## Treat `name` as a static string part template = t"Hello " + Template(name) ## Treat `name` as an interpolation template = t"Hello " + Template(Interpolation(name, "name")) ``` ### Template and Interpolation Equality `Template` and `Interpolation` instances compare with object identity (`is`). `Template` instances are intended to be used by template processing code, which may return a string or any other type. Those types can provide their own equality semantics as needed. ### No Support for Ordering The `Template` and `Interpolation` types do not support ordering. This is unlike all other string literal types in Python, which support lexicographic ordering. Because interpolations can contain arbitrary values, there is no natural ordering for them. As a result, neither the `Template` nor the `Interpolation` type implements the standard comparison methods. ### Support for the debug specifier (`=`) The debug specifier, `=`, is supported in template strings and behaves similarly to how it behaves in f-strings, though due to limitations of the implementation there is a slight difference. In particular, `t'{value=}'` is treated as `t'value={value!r}'`. The first static string is rewritten from `""` to `"value="` and the `conversion` defaults to `r`: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {name=}" assert template.strings[0] == "Hello name=" assert template.interpolations[0].value == "World" assert template.interpolations[0].conversion == "r" ``` If a conversion is explicitly provided, it is kept: `t'{value=!s}'` is treated as `t'value={value!s}'`. If a format string is provided without a conversion, the `conversion` is set to `None`: `t'{value=:fmt}'` is treated as `t'value={value:fmt}'`. Whitespace is preserved in the debug specifier, so `t'{value = }'` is treated as `t'value = {value!r}'`. ### Raw Template Strings Raw template strings are supported using the `rt` (or `tr`) prefix: ```python trade = 'shrubberies' template = rt'Did you say "{trade}"?\n' assert template.strings[0] == r'Did you say "' assert template.strings[1] == r'"?\n' ``` In this example, the `\n` is treated as two separate characters (a backslash followed by 'n') rather than a newline character. This is consistent with Python's raw string behavior. As with regular template strings, interpolations in raw template strings are processed normally, allowing for the combination of raw string behavior and dynamic content. ### Interpolation Expression Evaluation Expression evaluation for interpolations is the same as in `498#expression-evaluation`: The expressions that are extracted from the string are evaluated in the context where the template string appeared. This means the expression has full access to its lexical scope, including local and global variables. Any valid Python expression can be used, including function and method calls. Template strings are evaluated eagerly from left to right, just like f-strings. This means that interpolations are evaluated immediately when the template string is processed, not deferred or wrapped in lambdas. In the compiler this eager evaluation is driven through the abstract syntax tree and bytecode: a template literal is represented as an `ast.TemplateStr` node and each replacement field as an `ast.Interpolation` node whose evaluated expression is held in its `value` field, and the code generator emits two dedicated opcodes to assemble the objects at run time — `BUILD_INTERPOLATION` builds each `Interpolation` from its value, expression, conversion, and format spec, and `BUILD_TEMPLATE` combines the string parts and interpolations into the final `Template`. ### Exceptions Exceptions raised in t-string literals are the same as those raised in f-string literals. ### No `Template.__str__()` Implementation The `Template` type does not provide a specialized `__str__()` implementation. This is because `Template` instances are intended to be used by template processing code, which may return a string or any other type. There is no canonical way to convert a Template to a string. The `Template` and `Interpolation` types both provide useful `__repr__()` implementations. ### The `string.templatelib` Module The `string` module will be converted into a package, with a new `templatelib` submodule containing the `Template` and `Interpolation` types. Following the implementation of this PEP, this new module may be used for related functions, such as `!convert`, or potential future template processing code, such as shell script helpers. ## Examples All examples in this section of the PEP have fully tested reference implementations available in the public [pep750-examples](https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples) git repository. ### Example: Implementing f-strings with t-strings It is easy to "implement" f-strings using t-strings. That is, we can write a function `f(template: Template) -> str` that processes a `Template` in much the same way as an f-string literal, returning the same result: ```python name = "World" value = 42 templated = t"Hello {name!r}, value: {value:.2f}" formatted = f"Hello {name!r}, value: {value:.2f}" assert f(templated) == formatted ``` The `f()` function supports both conversion specifiers like `!r` and format specifiers like `:.2f`. The full code is fairly simple: ```python from string.templatelib import Template, Interpolation def convert(value: object, conversion: Literal["a", "r", "s"] | None) -> object: if conversion == "a": return ascii(value) elif conversion == "r": return repr(value) elif conversion == "s": return str(value) return value def f(template: Template) -> str: parts = [] for item in template: match item: case str() as s: parts.append(s) case Interpolation(value, _, conversion, format_spec): value = convert(value, conversion) value = format(value, format_spec) parts.append(value) return "".join(parts) ``` > **Note:** Example code See `fstring.py`__ and `test_fstring.py`__. __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/fstring.py __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/test_fstring.py ### Example: Structured Logging Structured logging allows developers to log data in machine-readable formats like JSON. With t-strings, developers can easily log structured data alongside human-readable messages using just a single log statement. We present two different approaches to implementing structured logging with template strings. #### Approach 1: Custom Log Messages The `Python Logging Cookbook ` has a short section on [how to implement structured logging](https://docs.python.org/3/howto/logging-cookbook.html#implementing-structured-logging). The logging cookbook suggests creating a new "message" class, `StructuredMessage`, that is constructed with a simple text message and a separate dictionary of values: ```python message = StructuredMessage("user action", { "action": "traded", "amount": 42, "item": "shrubs" }) logging.info(message) ## Outputs: ## user action >>> {"action": "traded", "amount": 42, "item": "shrubs"} ``` The `StructuredMessage.__str__()` method formats both the human-readable message *and* the values, combining them into a final string. (See the [logging cookbook](https://docs.python.org/3/howto/logging-cookbook.html#implementing-structured-logging) for its full example.) We can implement an improved version of `StructuredMessage` using template strings: ```python import json from string.templatelib import Interpolation, Template from typing import Mapping class TemplateMessage: def __init__(self, template: Template) -> None: self.template = template @property def message(self) -> str: # Use the f() function from the previous example return f(self.template) @property def values(self) -> Mapping[str, object]: return { item.expression: item.value for item in self.template if isinstance(item, Interpolation) } def __str__(self) -> str: return f"{self.message} >>> {json.dumps(self.values)}" _ = TemplateMessage # optional, to improve readability action, amount, item = "traded", 42, "shrubs" logging.info(_(t"User {action}: {amount:.2f} {item}")) ## Outputs: ## User traded: 42.00 shrubs >>> {"action": "traded", "amount": 42, "item": "shrubs"} ``` Template strings give us a more elegant way to define the custom message class. With template strings it is no longer necessary for developers to make sure that their format string and values dictionary are kept in sync; a single template string literal is all that is needed. The `TemplateMessage` implementation can automatically extract structured keys and values from the `Interpolation.expression` and `Interpolation.value` attributes, respectively. #### Approach 2: Custom Formatters Custom messages are a reasonable approach to structured logging but can be a little awkward. To use them, developers must wrap every log message they write in a custom class. This can be easy to forget. An alternative approach is to define custom `logging.Formatter` classes. This approach is more flexible and allows for more control over the final output. In particular, it's possible to take a single template string and output it in multiple formats (human-readable and JSON) to separate log streams. We define two simple formatters, a `MessageFormatter` for human-readable output and a `ValuesFormatter` for JSON output: ```python import json from logging import Formatter, LogRecord from string.templatelib import Interpolation, Template from typing import Any, Mapping class MessageFormatter(Formatter): def message(self, template: Template) -> str: # Use the f() function from the previous example return f(template) def format(self, record: LogRecord) -> str: msg = record.msg if not isinstance(msg, Template): return super().format(record) return self.message(msg) class ValuesFormatter(Formatter): def values(self, template: Template) -> Mapping[str, Any]: return { item.expression: item.value for item in template if isinstance(item, Interpolation) } def format(self, record: LogRecord) -> str: msg = record.msg if not isinstance(msg, Template): return super().format(record) return json.dumps(self.values(msg)) ``` We can then use these formatters when configuring our logger: ```python import logging import sys logger = logging.getLogger(__name__) message_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout) message_handler.setFormatter(MessageFormatter()) logger.addHandler(message_handler) values_handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stderr) values_handler.setFormatter(ValuesFormatter()) logger.addHandler(values_handler) action, amount, item = "traded", 42, "shrubs" logger.info(t"User {action}: {amount:.2f} {item}") ## Outputs to sys.stdout: ## User traded: 42.00 shrubs ## At the same time, outputs to sys.stderr: ## {"action": "traded", "amount": 42, "item": "shrubs"} ``` This approach has a couple advantages over the custom message approach to structured logging: - Developers can log a t-string directly without wrapping it in a custom class. - Human-readable and structured output can be sent to separate log streams. This is useful for log aggregation systems that process structured data independently from human-readable data. > **Note:** Example code See `logging.py`__ and `test_logging.py`__. __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/logging.py __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/test_logging.py ### Example: HTML Templating This PEP contains several short HTML templating examples. It turns out that the "hypothetical" `html()` function mentioned in the `Motivation`_ section (and a few other places in this PEP) exists and is available in the [pep750-examples repository](https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/). If you're thinking about parsing a complex grammar with template strings, we hope you'll find it useful. ## Backwards Compatibility Like f-strings, use of template strings will be a syntactic backwards incompatibility with previous versions. ## Security Implications The security implications of working with template strings, with respect to interpolations, are as follows: 1. Scope lookup is the same as f-strings (lexical scope). This model has been shown to work well in practice. 2. Code that processes `Template` instances can ensure that any interpolations are processed in a safe fashion, including respecting the context in which they appear. ## How To Teach This Template strings have several audiences: - Developers using template strings and processing functions - Authors of template processing code - Framework authors who build interesting machinery with template strings We hope that teaching developers will be straightforward. At a glance, template strings look just like f-strings. Their syntax is familiar and the scoping rules remain the same. The first thing developers must learn is that template string literals don't evaluate to strings; instead, they evaluate to a new type, `Template`. This is a simple type intended to be used by template processing code. It's not until developers call a processing function that they get the result they want: typically, a string, although processing code can of course return any arbitrary type. Developers will also want to understand how template strings relate to other string formatting methods like f-strings and `str.format`. They will need to decide when to use each method. If a simple string is all that is needed, and there are no security implications, f-strings are likely the best choice. For most cases where a format string is used, it can be replaced with a function wrapping the creation of a template string. In cases where the format string is obtained from user input, the filesystem, or databases, it is possible to write code to convert it into a `Template` instance if desired. Because developers will learn that t-strings are nearly always used in tandem with processing functions, they don't necessarily need to understand the details of the `Template` type. As with descriptors and decorators, we expect many more developers will use t-strings than write t-string processing functions. Over time, a small number of more advanced developers *will* wish to author their own template processing code. Writing processing code often requires thinking in terms of formal grammars. Developers will need to learn how to work with the `strings` and `interpolation` attributes of a `Template` instance and how to process interpolations in a context-sensitive fashion. More sophisticated grammars will likely require parsing to intermediate representations like an abstract syntax tree (AST). Great template processing code will handle format specifiers and conversions when appropriate. Writing production-grade template processing code -- for instance, to support HTML templates -- can be a large undertaking. We expect that template strings will provide framework authors with a powerful new tool in their toolbox. While the functionality of template strings overlaps with existing tools like template engines, t-strings move that logic into the language itself. Bringing the full power and generality of Python to bear on string processing tasks opens new possibilities for framework authors. ## Why another templating approach? The world of Python already has mature templating languages with wide adoption, such as Jinja. Why build support for creating new templating systems? Projects such as Jinja are still needed in cases where the template is less part of the software by the developers, and more part of customization by designers or even content created by users, for example in a CMS. The trends in frontend development have treated templating as part of the software and written by developers. They want modern language features and a good tooling experience. PEP 750 envisions DSLs where the non-static parts are Python: same scope rules, typing, expression syntax, and the like. ## Common Patterns Seen in Processing Templates ### Structural Pattern Matching Iterating over the `Template` with structural pattern matching is the expected best practice for many template function implementations: ```python from string.templatelib import Template, Interpolation def process(template: Template) -> Any: for item in template: match item: case str() as s: ... # handle each string part case Interpolation() as interpolation: ... # handle each interpolation ``` Processing code may also commonly sub-match on attributes of the `Interpolation` type: ```python match arg: case Interpolation(int()): ... # handle interpolations with integer values case Interpolation(value=str() as s): ... # handle interpolations with string values # etc. ``` ### Memoizing Template functions can efficiently process both static and dynamic parts of templates. The structure of `Template` objects allows for effective memoization: ```python strings = template.strings # Static string parts values = template.values # Dynamic interpolated values ``` This separation enables caching of processed static parts while dynamic parts can be inserted as needed. Authors of template processing code can use the static `strings` as cache keys, leading to significant performance improvements when similar templates are used repeatedly. ### Parsing to Intermediate Representations Code that processes templates can parse the template string into intermediate representations, like an AST. We expect that many template processing libraries will use this approach. For instance, rather than returning a `str`, our theoretical `html()` function (see the `Motivation`_ section) could return an HTML `Element` defined in the same package: ```python @dataclass(frozen=True) class Element: tag: str attributes: Mapping[str, str | bool] children: Sequence[str | Element] def __str__(self) -> str: ... def html(template: Template) -> Element: ... ``` Calling `str(element)` would then render the HTML but, in the meantime, the `Element` could be manipulated in a variety of ways. ### Context-sensitive Processing of Interpolations Continuing with our hypothetical `html()` function, it could be made context-sensitive. Interpolations could be processed differently depending on where they appear in the template. For example, our `html()` function could support multiple kinds of interpolations: ```python attributes = {"id": "main"} attribute_value = "shrubbery" content = "hello" template = t"
{content}
" element = html(template) assert str(element) == '
hello
' ``` Because the `{attributes}` interpolation occurs in the context of an HTML tag, and because there is no corresponding attribute name, it is treated as a dictionary of attributes. The `{attribute_value}` interpolation is treated as a simple string value and is quoted before inclusion in the final string. The `{content}` interpolation is treated as potentially unsafe content and is escaped before inclusion in the final string. ### Nested Template Strings Going a step further with our `html()` function, we could support nested template strings. This would allow for more complex HTML structures to be built up from simpler templates: ```python name = "World" content = html(t"

Hello {name}

") template = t"
{content}
" element = html(template) assert str(element) == '

Hello World

' ``` Because the `{content}` interpolation is an `Element` instance, it does not need to be escaped before inclusion in the final string. One could imagine a nice simplification: if the `html()` function is passed a `Template` instance, it could automatically convert it to an `Element` by recursively calling itself on the nested template. We expect that nesting and composition of templates will be a common pattern in template processing code and, where appropriate, used in preference to simple string concatenation. ### Approaches to Lazy Evaluation Like f-strings, interpolations in t-string literals are eagerly evaluated. However, there are cases where lazy evaluation may be desirable. If a single interpolation is expensive to evaluate, it can be explicitly wrapped in a `lambda` in the template string literal: ```python name = "World" template = t"Hello {(lambda: name)}" assert callable(template.interpolations[0].value) assert template.interpolations[0].value() == "World" ``` This assumes, of course, that template processing code anticipates and handles callable interpolation values. (One could imagine also supporting iterators, awaitables, etc.) This is not a requirement of the PEP, but it is a common pattern in template processing code. In general, we hope that the community will develop best practices for lazy evaluation of interpolations in template strings and that, when it makes sense, common libraries will provide support for callable or awaitable values in their template processing code. ### Approaches to Asynchronous Evaluation Closely related to lazy evaluation is asynchronous evaluation. As with f-strings, the `await` keyword is allowed in interpolations: ```python async def example(): async def get_name() -> str: await asyncio.sleep(1) return "Sleepy" template = t"Hello {await get_name()}" # Use the f() function from the f-string example, above assert f(template) == "Hello Sleepy" ``` More sophisticated template processing code can take advantage of this to perform asynchronous operations in interpolations. For example, a "smart" processing function could anticipate that an interpolation is an awaitable and await it before processing the template string: ```python async def example(): async def get_name() -> str: await asyncio.sleep(1) return "Sleepy" template = t"Hello {get_name}" assert await async_f(template) == "Hello Sleepy" ``` This assumes that the template processing code in `async_f()` is asynchronous and is able to `await` an interpolation's value. > **Note:** Example code See `afstring.py`__ and `test_afstring.py`__. __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/afstring.py __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/test_afstring.py ### Approaches to Template Reuse If developers wish to reuse template strings multiple times with different values, they can write a function to return a `Template` instance: ```python def reusable(name: str, question: str) -> Template: return t"Hello {name}, {question}?" template = reusable("friend", "how are you") template = reusable("King Arthur", "what is your quest") ``` This is, of course, no different from how f-strings can be reused. ### Relation to Format Strings The venerable `str.format` method accepts format strings that can later be used to format values: ```python alas_fmt = "We're all out of {cheese}." assert alas_fmt.format(cheese="Red Leicester") == "We're all out of Red Leicester." ``` If one squints, one can think of format strings as a kind of function definition. The *call* to `str.format` can be seen as a kind of function call. The t-string equivalent is to simply define a standard Python function that returns a `Template` instance: ```python def make_template(*, cheese: str) -> Template: return t"We're all out of {cheese}." template = make_template(cheese="Red Leicester") ## Using the f() function from the f-string example, above assert f(template) == "We're all out of Red Leicester." ``` The `make_template()` function itself can be thought of as analogous to the format string. The call to `make_template()` is analogous to the call to `str.format`. Of course, it is common to load format strings from external sources like a filesystem or database. Thankfully, because `Template` and `Interpolation` are simple Python types, it is possible to write a function that takes an old-style format string and returns an equivalent `Template` instance: ```python def from_format(fmt: str, /, *args: object, **kwargs: object) -> Template: """Parse `fmt` and return a `Template` instance.""" ... # Load this from a file, database, etc. fmt = "We're all out of {cheese}." template = from_format(fmt, cheese="Red Leicester") # Using the f() function from the f-string example, above assert f(template) == "We're all out of Red Leicester." ``` This is a powerful pattern that allows developers to use template strings in places where they might have previously used format strings. A full implementation of `from_format()` is available in the examples repository, which supports the full grammar of format strings. > **Note:** Example code See `format.py`__ and `test_format.py`__. __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/format.py __ https://github.com/t-strings/pep750-examples/blob/main/pep/test_format.py ## Rejected Ideas This PEP has been through several significant revisions. In addition, quite a few interesting ideas were considered both in revisions of PEP 501 and in the [Discourse discussion](https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-750-tag-strings-for-writing-domain-specific-languages/60408/196). We attempt to document the most significant ideas that were considered and rejected. ### Arbitrary String Literal Prefixes Inspired by [JavaScript tagged template literals](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Template_literals#tagged_templates), an earlier version of this PEP allowed for arbitrary "tag" prefixes in front of literal strings: ```python my_tag'Hello {name}' ``` The prefix was a special callable called a "tag function". Tag functions received the parts of the template string in an argument list. They could then process the string and return an arbitrary value: ```python def my_tag(*args: str | Interpolation) -> Any: ... ``` This approach was rejected for several reasons: - It was deemed too complex to build in full generality. JavaScript allows for arbitrary expressions to precede a template string, which is a significant challenge to implement in Python. - It precluded future introduction of new string prefixes. - It seemed to needlessly pollute the namespace. Use of a single `t` prefix was chosen as a simpler, more Pythonic approach and more in keeping with template strings' role as a generalization of f-strings. ### Delayed Evaluation of Interpolations An early version of this PEP proposed that interpolations should be lazily evaluated. All interpolations were "wrapped" in implicit lambdas. Instead of having an eagerly evaluated `value` attribute, interpolations had a `getvalue()` method that would resolve the value of the interpolation: ```python class Interpolation: ... _value: Callable[[], object] def getvalue(self) -> object: return self._value() ``` This was rejected for several reasons: - The overwhelming majority of use cases for template strings naturally call for immediate evaluation. - Delayed evaluation would be a significant departure from the behavior of f-strings. - Implicit lambda wrapping leads to difficulties with type hints and static analysis. Most importantly, there are viable (if imperfect) alternatives to implicit lambda wrapping in many cases where lazy evaluation is desired. See the section on `Approaches to Lazy Evaluation`_, above, for more information. While delayed evaluation was rejected for *this* PEP, we hope that the community continues to explore the idea. ### Making `Template` and `Interpolation` Into Protocols An early version of this PEP proposed that the `Template` and `Interpolation` types be runtime checkable protocols rather than classes. In the end, we felt that using classes was more straightforward. ### Overridden `__eq__` and `__hash__` for `Template` and `Interpolation` Earlier versions of this PEP proposed that the `Template` and `Interpolation` types should have their own implementations of `__eq__` and `__hash__`. `Templates` were considered equal if their `strings` and `interpolations` were equal; `Interpolations` were considered equal if their `value`, `expression`, `conversion`, and `format_spec` were equal. Interpolation hashing was similar to tuple hashing: an `Interpolation` was hashable if and only if its `value` was hashable. This was rejected because `Template.__hash__` so defined was not useful as a cache key in template processing code; we were concerned that it would be confusing to developers. By dropping these implementations of `__eq__` and `__hash__`, we lose the ability to write asserts such as: ```python name = "World" assert t"Hello " + t"{name}" == t"Hello {name}" ``` Because `Template` instances are intended to be quickly processed by further code, we felt that the utility of these asserts was limited. ### An Additional `Decoded` Type An early version of this PEP proposed an additional type, `Decoded`, to represent the "static string" parts of a template string. This type derived from `str` and had a single extra `raw` attribute that provided the original text of the string. We rejected this in favor of the simpler approach of using plain `str` and allowing combination of `r` and `t` prefixes. ### The Final Home for `Template` and `Interpolation` Previous versions of this PEP proposed placing the `Template` and `Interpolation` types in: `types`, `collections`, `collections.abc`, and even in a new top-level module, `templatelib`. The final decision was to place them in `string.templatelib`. ### Enable Full Reconstruction of Original Template Literal Earlier versions of this PEP attempted to make it possible to fully reconstruct the text of the original template string from a `Template` instance. This was rejected as being overly complex. The mapping between template literal source and the underlying AST is not one-to-one and there are several limitations with respect to round-tripping to the original source text. First, `Interpolation.format_spec` defaults to `""` if not provided: ```python value = 42 template1 = t"{value}" template2 = t"{value:}" assert template1.interpolations[0].format_spec == "" assert template2.interpolations[0].format_spec == "" ``` Next, the debug specifier, `=`, is treated as a special case and is processed before the AST is created. It is therefore not possible to distinguish `t"{value=}"` from `t"value={value!r}"`: ```python value = 42 template1 = t"{value=}" template2 = t"value={value!r}" assert template1.strings[0] == "value=" assert template1.interpolations[0].expression == "value" assert template1.interpolations[0].conversion == "r" assert template2.strings[0] == "value=" assert template2.interpolations[0].expression == "value" assert template2.interpolations[0].conversion == "r" ``` Finally, format specifiers in f-strings allow arbitrary nesting. In this PEP and in the reference implementation, the specifier is eagerly evaluated to set the `format_spec` in the `Interpolation`, thereby losing the original expressions. For example: ```python value = 42 precision = 2 template1 = t"{value:.2f}" template2 = t"{value:.{precision}f}" assert template1.interpolations[0].format_spec == ".2f" assert template2.interpolations[0].format_spec == ".2f" ``` We do not anticipate that these limitations will be a significant issue in practice. Developers who need to obtain the original template string literal can always use `inspect.getsource()` or similar tools. ### Disallowing Template Concatenation Earlier versions of this PEP proposed that `Template` instances should not support concatenation. This was rejected in favor of allowing concatenating multiple `Template` instances. There are reasonable arguments in favor of rejecting one or all forms of concatenation: namely, that it cuts off a class of potential bugs, particularly when one takes the view that template strings will often contain complex grammars for which concatenation doesn't always have the same meaning (or any meaning). Moreover, the earliest versions of this PEP proposed a syntax closer to JavaScript's tagged template literals, where an arbitrary callable could be used as a prefix to a string literal. There was no guarantee that the callable would return a type that supported concatenation. In the end, we decided that the surprise to developers of a new string type *not* supporting concatenation was likely to be greater than the theoretical harm caused by supporting it. While the final version of this PEP disallows concatenation of a `Template` and a `str`, the implementation targeted by this task (PR-132662) *does* support it: `Template + str` appends the `str` as a static string part and `str + Template` prepends it, both returning a new `Template` (see the Template String Concatenation section above). We expect that code that uses template strings will more commonly build up larger templates through nesting and composition rather than concatenation. ### Arbitrary Conversion Values Python allows only `r`, `s`, or `a` as possible conversion type values. Trying to assign a different value results in `SyntaxError`. In theory, template functions could choose to handle other conversion types. But this PEP adheres closely to PEP 701. Any changes to allowed values should be in a separate PEP. ### Removing `conversion` From `Interpolation` While drafting this PEP, we considered removing the `conversion` attribute from `Interpolation` and specifying that the conversion should be performed eagerly, before `Interpolation.value` is set. This was done to simplify the work of writing template processing code. The `conversion` attribute is of limited extensibility (it is typed as `Literal["r", "s", "a"] | None`). It is not clear that it adds significant value or flexibility to template strings that couldn't better be achieved with custom format specifiers. Unlike with format specifiers, there is no equivalent to Python's `python:format` built-in. (Instead, we include a sample implementation of `convert()` in the `Examples`_ section.) Ultimately we decided to keep the `conversion` attribute in the `Interpolation` type to maintain compatibility with f-strings and to allow for future extensibility. ### Alternate Interpolation Symbols In the early stages of this PEP, we considered allowing alternate symbols for interpolations in template strings. For example, we considered allowing `${name}` as an alternative to `{name}` with the idea that it might be useful for i18n or other purposes. See the [Discourse thread](https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-750-tag-strings-for-writing-domain-specific-languages/60408/122) for more information. This was rejected in favor of keeping t-string syntax as close to f-string syntax as possible. ### Alternate Layouts for `Template` During the development of this PEP, we considered several alternate layouts for the `Template` type. Many focused on a single `args` tuple that contained both strings and interpolations. Variants included: - `args` was a `tuple[str | Interpolation, ...]`` with the promise that its first and last items were strings and that strings and interpolations always alternated. This implied that `args` was always non-empty and that empty strings would be inserted between neighboring interpolations. This was rejected because alternation could not be captured by the type system and was not a guarantee we wished to make. - `args` remained a `tuple[str | Interpolation, ...]` but did not support interleaving. As a result, empty strings were not added to the sequence. It was no longer possible to obtain static strings with `args[::2]`; instead, instance checks or structural pattern matching had to be used to distinguish between strings and interpolations. This approach was rejected as offering less future opportunity for performance optimization. - `args` was typed as a `Sequence[tuple[str, Interpolation | None]]`. Each static string was paired with is neighboring interpolation. The final string part had no corresponding interpolation. This was rejected as being overly complex. ### Mechanism to Describe the "Kind" of Template If t-strings prove popular, it may be useful to have a way to describe the "kind" of content found in a template string: "sql", "html", "css", etc. This could enable powerful new features in tools such as linters, formatters, type checkers, and IDEs. (Imagine, for example, `black` formatting HTML in t-strings, or `mypy` checking whether a given attribute is valid for an HTML tag.) While exciting, this PEP does not propose any specific mechanism. It is our hope that, over time, the community will develop conventions for this purpose. ### Binary Template Strings The combination of t-strings and bytes (`tb`) is considered out of scope for this PEP. However, unlike f-strings, there is no fundamental reason why t-strings and bytes cannot be combined. Support could be considered in a future PEP.