Type annotation strings

About the String in List["Hero"]

In the first Relationship attribute, we declare it with List["Hero"], putting the Hero in quotes instead of just normally there:

from typing import List, Optional

from sqlmodel import Field, Relationship, Session, SQLModel, create_engine


class Team(SQLModel, table=True):
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)
    name: str = Field(index=True)
    headquarters: str

    heroes: List["Hero"] = Relationship(back_populates="team")


class Hero(SQLModel, table=True):
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)
    name: str = Field(index=True)
    secret_name: str
    age: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, index=True)

    team_id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, foreign_key="team.id")
    team: Optional[Team] = Relationship(back_populates="heroes")

# Code below omitted 👇

👀 Full file preview

from typing import List, Optional

from sqlmodel import Field, Relationship, Session, SQLModel, create_engine


class Team(SQLModel, table=True):
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)
    name: str = Field(index=True)
    headquarters: str

    heroes: List["Hero"] = Relationship(back_populates="team")


class Hero(SQLModel, table=True):
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)
    name: str = Field(index=True)
    secret_name: str
    age: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, index=True)

    team_id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, foreign_key="team.id")
    team: Optional[Team] = Relationship(back_populates="heroes")


sqlite_file_name = "database.db"
sqlite_url = f"sqlite:///{sqlite_file_name}"

engine = create_engine(sqlite_url, echo=True)


def create_db_and_tables():
    SQLModel.metadata.create_all(engine)


def create_heroes():
    with Session(engine) as session:
        team_preventers = Team(name="Preventers", headquarters="Sharp Tower")
        team_z_force = Team(name="Z-Force", headquarters="Sister Margaret's Bar")

        hero_deadpond = Hero(
            name="Deadpond", secret_name="Dive Wilson", team=team_z_force
        )
        hero_rusty_man = Hero(
            name="Rusty-Man", secret_name="Tommy Sharp", age=48, team=team_preventers
        )
        hero_spider_boy = Hero(name="Spider-Boy", secret_name="Pedro Parqueador")
        session.add(hero_deadpond)
        session.add(hero_rusty_man)
        session.add(hero_spider_boy)
        session.commit()

        session.refresh(hero_deadpond)
        session.refresh(hero_rusty_man)
        session.refresh(hero_spider_boy)

        print("Created hero:", hero_deadpond)
        print("Created hero:", hero_rusty_man)
        print("Created hero:", hero_spider_boy)

        hero_spider_boy.team = team_preventers
        session.add(hero_spider_boy)
        session.commit()


def main():
    create_db_and_tables()
    create_heroes()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

What's that about? Can't we just write it normally as List[Hero]?

By that point, in that line in the code, the Python interpreter doesn't know of any class Hero, and if we put it just there, it would try to find it unsuccessfully, and then fail. 😭

Unlike some other Python features, SQLModel does not require the import from __future__ import annotations to handle forward referenced type annotations. In fact, when working with SQLModel, this import will disrupt the mapping of forward referenced types.

But by putting it in quotes, in a string, the interpreter sees it as just a string with the text "Hero" inside.

But the editor and other tools can see that the string is actually a type annotation inside, and provide all the autocompletion, type checks, etc. 🎉

And of course, SQLModel can also understand it in the string correctly. ✨

That is actually part of Python, it's the current official solution to handle it.

Info

There's a lot of work going on in Python itself to make that simpler and more intuitive, and find ways to make it possible to not wrap the class in a string.