== Why is this an issue?

There are several reasons for a function or a method not to have a body:


* It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
* It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an exception should be thrown.
* The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.

=== Noncompliant code example

[source,python]
----
def myfunc1(foo="Noncompliant"):
    pass

class MyClass:
    def mymethod1(self, foo="Noncompliant"):
        pass
----

=== Compliant solution

[source,python]
----
def myfunc1():
    pass  # comment explaining why this function is empty

def myfunc2():
    raise NotImplementedError()

def myfunc3():
    """
    Docstring explaining why this function is empty.
    """

class MyClass:
    def mymethod1(self):
        pass  # comment explaining why this function is empty

    def mymethod2(self):
        raise NotImplementedError()

    def mymethod3(self):
        """
        Docstring explaining why this method is empty. Note that this is not recommended for classes
        which are meant to be subclassed.
        """
----

=== Exceptions

No issue will be raised when the empty method is abstract and meant to be overriden in a subclass, i.e. it is decorated with ``++abc.abstractmethod++``, ``++abc.abstractstaticmethod++``, ``++abc.abstractclassmethod++`` or ``++abc.abstractproperty++``. Note however that these methods should normally have a docstring explaining how subclasses should implement these methods.


----
import abc

class MyAbstractClass(abc.ABC):
    @abc.abstractproperty
    def myproperty(self):
        pass

    @abc.abstractclassmethod
    def myclassmethod(cls):
        pass

    @abc.abstractmethod
    def mymethod(self):
        pass

    @abc.abstractstaticmethod
    def mystaticmethod():
        pass
----

ifdef::env-github,rspecator-view[]

'''
== Implementation Specification
(visible only on this page)

include::../message.adoc[]

'''
== Comments And Links
(visible only on this page)

include::../comments-and-links.adoc[]
endif::env-github,rspecator-view[]