Types

Casts and Any

Any and cast are escape hatches for places static analysis cannot prove.

Any disables most static checking for a value. The runtime object is still whatever value was actually assigned.

Source

from typing import Any, cast

raw: Any = {"score": "98"}
score_text = cast(dict[str, str], raw)["score"]
score = int(score_text)
print(score + 2)

Output

cast() does not convert or validate the value. It returns the same object at runtime.

Source

print(cast(list[int], raw) is raw)
print(type(raw).__name__)

Output

True
dict

A real runtime check narrows by inspecting the value. This is safer when the input is untrusted.

Source

value: object = {"score": "98"}
if isinstance(value, dict):
    print(value["score"])

Output

Notes

Any disables most static checking for a value.
cast() tells the type checker to trust you without changing the runtime object.
Prefer narrowing with checks when possible.

Run the complete example

100
True
dict

Execution time appears here after you run the example.