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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Set return of type Axes in Numpydoc docstring return type hint for Figure.add_subplot and Figure.add_axes to help jedi introspection","articleBody":"I've noticed there is push in the documentation for using objects over the pyplot functions. I agree that this the best way to use Matplotlib(other than the set_ get_ methods). The problem I have is that Jedi(used in Spyder IDE and other editors) doesn't recognize the return types of some Matplotlib functions and methods such as `plt.figure` and `plt.subplot`.  For example in Jedi 0.9 you get:\r\n\r\n    In [1]: import jedi; jedi.Script('import pylab; a = pylab.figure(); a.set_f').completions()\r\n    Out[1]: []\r\n\r\nI usually have to play with MPL code in the console first to remember all the functions instead of just typing it all in the editor.\r\n\r\nLuckily recently this patch(davidhalter/jedi#796) has been recently submitted to Jedi(not by me) which adds among other things implements return type hints from numpydoc docstrings. With this Jedi patch I get:\r\n\r\n    In [1]: import jedi; jedi.Script('import pylab; a = pylab.figure(); a.set_f').completions()\r\n    Out[1]: \r\n    [\u003cCompletion: set_facecolor\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_figheight\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_figure\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_figwidth\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_frameon\u003e]\r\n\r\nWhich is great. This works because there is a Numpydoc docstring for `plt.figure` with return of `Figure`. This works in Spyder IDE as well.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, this code doesn't work even after the patch:\r\n\r\n    import jedi; jedi.Script('import pylab; ax = pylab.figure().add_subplot(111); ax.set_x').completions()\r\n\r\nThis is a result of the docstrings for Figure.add_subplot and Figure.add_axes not containing a numpydoc return statement.\r\n\r\nHowever, If I add this the top of their docstrings:\r\n\r\n        \"\"\"\r\n        Returns\r\n        -------\r\n        axes : Axes\r\n           The Axes you made\r\n           \r\n        Examples\r\n        --------\r\n\r\nI then get this result with the patch applied:\r\n\r\n    In [3]: import jedi; jedi.Script('import pylab; ax = pylab.figure().add_subplot(111); ax.set_x').completions()\r\n    Out[3]: \r\n    [\u003cCompletion: set_xbound\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xlabel\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xlim\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xmargin\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xscale\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xticklabels\u003e,\r\n     \u003cCompletion: set_xticks\u003e]\r\n\r\nWhich is quite helpful when trying to remember all those Axes methods and for new learners.\r\n\r\nI'm sure there are a few other functions( like `plt.gcf` and `Figure.gca` to name a couple) that could use a type hint as well.\r\n\r\nHere it is working in Spyder (Some functions of Numpy work too...That `z` completes as a `numpy.adarray` ):\r\n\r\n![screenshot from 2016-11-29 23-05-25](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/10513354/20744218/d1798a62-b697-11e6-9d3c-f9ecd77fde2f.png)\r\n\r\nFor more info on this with spyder see my comments on spyder-ide/spyder#2162\r\n\r\nTo help us understand and resolve your issue please check that you have provided\r\nthe information below.\r\n\r\n- [x] Matplotlib version, Python version and Platform (Windows, OSX, Linux ...)\r\nI'm using Python 3.5 on Linux with Matplotlib 1.5.3\r\n- [x] How did you install Matplotlib and Python (pip, anaconda, from source ...)\r\nAnaconda\r\n- [x] If possible please supply a [Short, Self Contained, Correct, Example](http://sscce.org/)\r\n      that demonstrates the issue i.e a small piece of code which reproduces the issue\r\n      and can be run with out any other (or as few as possible) external dependencies.\r\n- [ ] If this is an image generation bug attach a screenshot demonstrating the issue.\r\n- [ ] If this is a regression (Used to work in an earlier version of Matplotlib), please \r\n      note where it used to work.\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/bcolsen","@type":"Person","name":"bcolsen"},"datePublished":"2016-11-30T07:59:10.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/7535/matplotlib/issues/7535"}