what exactly is python typing.Callable?

typing.Callable is the type you use to indicate a callable. Most python types that support the () operator are of the type collections.abc.Callable. Examples include functions, classmethods, staticmethods, bound methods and lambdas.

In summary, anything with a __call__ method (which is how () is implemented), is a callable.

PEP 677 attempted to introduce implicit tuple-with-arrow syntax, so that something like Callable[[int, str], list[float]] could be expressed much more intuitively as (int, str) -> list[float]. The PEP was rejected because the benefits of the new syntax were not deemed sufficient given the added maintenance burden and possible room for confusion.

I would like to add to other answers that starting with Python 3.9, typing.Callable is deprecated. You should use collections.abc.Callable instead.

For more details and the rationale, you can take a look at PEP 585

The typing module is used for type hints:

This module provides runtime support for type hints.

What are type hints?

The documentation provides this example:

def greeting(name: str) -> str:
    return 'Hello ' + name

In the function greeting, the argument name is expected to be of type str and the return type str. Subtypes are accepted as arguments.

How to use typing.Callable

Assume you want to define a function that takes two integers and performs some kind of operation on them that returns another integer:

def apply_func(a: int, b: int, func) -> int:
    return func(a, b)

So the expected type of the func argument in apply_func is “something that can be called (e.g. a function) that takes two integer arguments and returns an integer”:

typing.Callable[[int, int], int]

Why bother with type hints in the first place?

Using type hints enables you to perform type checking. If you use an IDE like PyCharm or Visual Studio Code, you’ll get visual feedback if you’re using unexpected types:

See the documentation here.

Short version, Callable is a type hint that indicates a function or other object which can be called.

Consider a simple example below. The bar parameter is a callable object that takes two ints as parameters and returns an int.

>>> def foo(bar: Callable[[int, int], int], a: int, b: int) -> int:
...     return bar(a, b)
...
>>> foo(int.__add__, 4, 5)
9
>>> class A:
...     def __call__(self, a, b):
...         return a * b
...
>>> foo(A(), 6, 7)
42
>>> foo(lambda x, y: x - y, 8, 3)
5
>>>