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section-underline-matches-section-length (D409)

Derived from the pydocstyle linter.

Fix is always available.

What it does

Checks for section underlines in docstrings that do not match the length of the corresponding section header.

Why is this bad?

This rule enforces a consistent style for multiline numpy-style docstrings, and helps prevent incorrect syntax in docstrings using reStructuredText.

Multiline numpy-style docstrings are typically composed of a summary line, followed by a blank line, followed by a series of sections. Each section has a section header and a section body, and there should be a series of underline characters in the line following the header. The length of the underline should exactly match the length of the section header.

This rule enforces a consistent style for multiline numpy-style docstrings with sections. If your docstring uses reStructuredText, the rule also helps protect against incorrect reStructuredText syntax, which would cause errors if you tried to use a tool such as Sphinx to generate documentation from the docstring.

This rule is enabled when using the numpy convention, and disabled when using the google or pep257 conventions.

Example

def calculate_speed(distance: float, time: float) -> float:
    """Calculate speed as distance divided by time.

    Parameters
    ---
    distance : float
        Distance traveled.
    time : float
        Time spent traveling.

    Returns
    ---
    float
        Speed as distance divided by time.

    Raises
    ---
    FasterThanLightError
        If speed is greater than the speed of light.
    """
    try:
        return distance / time
    except ZeroDivisionError as exc:
        raise FasterThanLightError from exc

Use instead:

def calculate_speed(distance: float, time: float) -> float:
    """Calculate speed as distance divided by time.

    Parameters
    ----------
    distance : float
        Distance traveled.
    time : float
        Time spent traveling.

    Returns
    -------
    float
        Speed as distance divided by time.

    Raises
    ------
    FasterThanLightError
        If speed is greater than the speed of light.
    """
    try:
        return distance / time
    except ZeroDivisionError as exc:
        raise FasterThanLightError from exc

Options

References