fix documentation of string.replace() signature

[cjerdonek]

BPO	16072
Nosy	@asvetlov, @cjerdonek

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2012-09-28.13:36:17.479>
created_at = <Date 2012-09-28.03:28:48.552>
labels = ['easy', 'type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'fix documentation of string.replace() signature'
updated_at = <Date 2012-09-28.13:36:17.478>
user = 'https://github.com/cjerdonek'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2012-09-28.13:36:17.478>
actor = 'asvetlov'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2012-09-28.13:36:17.479>
closer = 'asvetlov'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2012-09-28.03:28:48.552>
creator = 'chris.jerdonek'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 16072
keywords = ['easy']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['171404', '171446', '171447', '171449', '171451', '171462']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['asvetlov', 'chris.jerdonek', 'docs@python']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue16072'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[cjerdonek]

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:42:47 -0400
To: <docs@python.org>
Subject: [docs] Problem with the documentation for string.replace

>From http://docs.python.org/library/string.html

string.replace(str, old, new[, maxreplace])?<http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#string.replace\>
Return a copy of string str with all occurrences of substring old replaced by new. If the optional argument maxreplace is given, the first maxreplace occurrences are replaced.

it would appear this needs to be
string.replace(old, new[, maxreplace])?<http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#string.replace\>

(from: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/docs/2012-September/010521.html )

[asvetlov]

No it shoudn't.
It works exactly as described:
Return a copy of string *str* with all occurrences of substring *old* replaced by *new*. If the optional argument *maxreplace* is given, the first *maxreplace* occurrences are replaced.
*str* is updated string and it is definitelly required.

[cjerdonek]

Thanks, Andrew. I didn't look closely enough when reading the e-mail or I wouldn't have posted. I had assumed from the e-mail that this was in the string *method* section rather than string module.

[cjerdonek]

[Reopening] It looks like at least *some* change is warranted here. Notice that all the functions document "s" for the string argument but string.replace() documents "str". However, we have (in 2.7):

>>> string.replace(str='aab', old='a', new='b')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: replace() got an unexpected keyword argument 'str'
>>> string.replace(s='aab', old='a', new='b')
'bbb'

[asvetlov]

If you want just to change parameter name in the docs — I'm ok with that.

[asvetlov]

Fixed in c34a177d1f38