gh-96397: Document that attributes need not be identifiers (GH-96454)

Co-authored-by: C.A.M. Gerlach <CAM.Gerlach@Gerlach.CAM>
(cherry picked from commit 9a11ed8e50492d327e4de0a8f3a473e788b14a6f)

Co-authored-by: Jeff Allen <ja.py@farowl.co.uk>

diff --git a/Doc/glossary.rst b/Doc/glossary.rst
index 9550b986bf473dabfff7911c8fb5d4c46aa8371a..59f9426f603172c9bab2373e262cdbe7c3362122 100644 (file)
--- a/Doc/glossary.rst
+++ b/Doc/glossary.rst
@@ -136,10 +136,17 @@ Glossary
       :exc:`StopAsyncIteration` exception.  Introduced by :pep:`492`.
 
    attribute
-      A value associated with an object which is referenced by name using
-      dotted expressions.  For example, if an object *o* has an attribute
+      A value associated with an object which is usually referenced by name
+      using dotted expressions.
+      For example, if an object *o* has an attribute
       *a* it would be referenced as *o.a*.
 
+      It is possible to give an object an attribute whose name is not an
+      identifier as defined by :ref:`identifiers`, for example using
+      :func:`setattr`, if the object allows it.
+      Such an attribute will not be accessible using a dotted expression,
+      and would instead need to be retrieved with :func:`getattr`.
+
    awaitable
       An object that can be used in an :keyword:`await` expression.  Can be
       a :term:`coroutine` or an object with an :meth:`__await__` method.

diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index 23936986929f64bdd2317ed7c21579777b66ce69..8108c98332e964573a69b27f592df29d28cc6c6b 100644 (file)
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -403,6 +403,7 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    string.  The string must be the name of one of the object's attributes.  The
    function deletes the named attribute, provided the object allows it.  For
    example, ``delattr(x, 'foobar')`` is equivalent to ``del x.foobar``.
+   *name* need not be a Python identifier (see :func:`setattr`).
 
 
 .. _func-dict:
@@ -746,6 +747,7 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    value of that attribute.  For example, ``getattr(x, 'foobar')`` is equivalent to
    ``x.foobar``.  If the named attribute does not exist, *default* is returned if
    provided, otherwise :exc:`AttributeError` is raised.
+   *name* need not be a Python identifier (see :func:`setattr`).
 
    .. note::
 
@@ -1598,6 +1600,12 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    object allows it.  For example, ``setattr(x, 'foobar', 123)`` is equivalent to
    ``x.foobar = 123``.
 
+   *name* need not be a Python identifier as defined in :ref:`identifiers`
+   unless the object chooses to enforce that, for example in a custom
+   :meth:`~object.__getattribute__` or via :attr:`~object.__slots__`.
+   An attribute whose name is not an identifier will not be accessible using
+   the dot notation, but is accessible through :func:`getattr` etc..
+
    .. note::
 
       Since :ref:`private name mangling <private-name-mangling>` happens at