[New-bugs-announce] [issue25299] TypeError: __init__() takes at least 4 arguments (4 given)

[A. Skrobov]

New submission from A. Skrobov:

Python 2.7.3 (default, Dec 18 2014, 19:10:20) 
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from argparse import ArgumentParser
>>> parser = ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument("--foo", help="foo", action='store_const')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1281, in add_argument
    action = action_class(**kwargs)
TypeError: __init__() takes at least 4 arguments (4 given)
>>> 



First, the exception message is entirely unhelpful (you wanted at least 4, you got 4, what's your problem?)

Second, adding "const=None" to the invocation makes it succeed; but,  according to https://docs.python.org/2/library/argparse.html#const this argument defaults to "None", so it shouldn't be necessary to specify it explicitly. Thus, either the documentation or the implementation is wrong.

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation, Extension Modules
messages: 252106
nosy: A. Skrobov, docs at python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: TypeError: __init__() takes at least 4 arguments (4 given)
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.7

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue25299>
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