Description

iritkatriel

opened on Jan 6, 2026

Issue body actions

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

symtable symbols have the following predicates, but for some reason no is_cell. Is there a reason for this, or should we expose is_cell as well?

'is_annotated', 'is_assigned', 'is_declared_global', 'is_free', 'is_global', 'is_imported', 'is_local', 'is_namespace', 'is_nonlocal', 'is_parameter', 'is_referenced'

The symbol obviously knows whether it's a cell:

>>> st.get_children()[0].get_symbols()[0]._scope_str
<bound method Symbol._scope_str of <symbol 'x': CELL, USE|DEF_LOCAL>>

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

No response given

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

No response

Linked PRs

• gh-143504: Expose CELL status of a symbol in symtable #143549

Activity

1. iritkatriel

   added

   type-featureA feature request or enhancementA feature request or enhancement

   on Jan 6, 2026
2. johnslavik

   added

   stdlibStandard Library Python modules in the Lib/ directoryStandard Library Python modules in the Lib/ directory

   on Jan 7, 2026
3. Yashp002 commented on Jan 7, 2026

   

   Yashp002

   on Jan 7, 2026

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   I did look this up in the issue tracker, python-dev/python-ideas archives, and discuss.python.org for symtable is_cell and it doesn't seem have to been discussed elsewhere.
4. picnixz commented on Jan 7, 2026

   

   picnixz

   on Jan 7, 2026

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   @Yashp002 Core developers usually don't need to discuss some features. We appreciate your dedication to contribute but please let triagers or core devs decide whether an issue should be kept open or not. In this case, it's not even about exposing it but rather asking for something.

   symtable symbols have the following predicates, but for some reason no is_cell. Is there a reason for this, or should we expose is_cell as well?

   I'm pretty sure I asked this question myself when I worked on #120029 but I didn't follow up. I think we can add it for completeness as it's not really costly and that's the only way to know whether something is in a CELL scope or not (scope being private and scope_str being a string, hence unstable).
5. Yashp002 commented on Jan 7, 2026

   

   Yashp002

   on Jan 7, 2026

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   I can put together a PR to add is_cell to symtable then, since it sounds like a straightforward addition for completeness.
   Also was not my intention to be prying into a core dev's authority, that's my bad.
6. iritkatriel commented on Jan 7, 2026

   

   iritkatriel

   on Jan 7, 2026

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   Thanks. Also maybe a get_cells to go with the existing get_frees.
7. Yashp002 commented on Jan 21, 2026

   

   Yashp002

   on Jan 21, 2026

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   @iritkatriel Could you verify my PR, I've added get_cells, is_cell and also the test_cells in test_symtable.py for the build.
   Please let me know If I have to further fix anything:D

   Reacted by Irit Katriel
8. iritkatriel

   added a commit that references this issue on Jan 25, 2026

   gh-143504: Expose CELL status of a symbol in symtable (#143549)

   a51bf70
9. thunder-coding

   added a commit that references this issue on Feb 15, 2026

   pythongh-143504: Expose CELL status of a symbol in symtable (python#1…

   f3c5bfb
10. serhiy-storchaka

    added this to Inspect issues 🔍on Jul 3, 2026
11. hugovk

    closed this as completedon Oct 23, 2026
12. github-project-automation

    moved this to Done in Inspect issues 🔍on Oct 23, 2026

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