Reviewed by Aditya Kumar · Last reviewed 2026-03-24
**Why Docstrings:** Documentation as code—accessible via help(), __doc__, and auto-generated APIs (Sphinx). Critical for team scale and onboarding. **Formats:** Google, NumPy, reST. Include: purpose, Args, Returns, Raises, Examples. Type hints complement docstrings....
Why Docstrings: Documentation as code—accessible via help(), __doc__, and auto-generated APIs (Sphinx). Critical for team scale and onboarding.
Formats: Google, NumPy, reST. Include: purpose, Args, Returns, Raises, Examples. Type hints complement docstrings.
Production: We enforce docstrings on public functions. CI runs pydocstyle. Sphinx generates docs for our internal ETL lib. doctest for executable examples.
def load(path: str, limit: int = 1000) -> pd.DataFrame:
"""Load and transform data.\n\n Args:\n path: Source path.\n limit: Max rows.\n Returns:\n DataFrame.\n """
Red Flag: No docstring on public API. Pro-Move: 'We use Google format + Sphinx—docs stay in sync with code via CI.'
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