Comment by zo1

The article is incredibly misleading. Python Enums are way more powerful than what is showcased there.

First, rudimentary/basic enums are as simple as instance variables on a class and allow super-helpful IDE "auto-completion" that doesn't necessitate the use of magic-strings to at least "set" the enum. I've been using this ridiculously simple trick since 2.5 ten years ago. Magic-strings are bad, and even worse when you have a disparate code-base in a dynamically typed language. Example:

    class MyEnum(object):
        Pass = 1
        Fail = 2

    my_value = MyEnum. <-- at this point, the IDE gives you code-completion.

Second, real Enums added as a language-feature along with type-hinting are almost 100% on-par with statically typed languages. See:

    class MyEnum(Enum):
        Pass = 1
        Fail = 2

    def my_func(did_they_pass: MyEnum):
        if did_they_pass.Something:   # IDE / type-checker will go nuts here.
            print("Something")

Edit: Forgot the main point. Switch/case uses are only a small sub-set of the uses of Enums. So even basic/crappy enums are better than magic strings in a dynamically-typed language. Also, please don't use "list of strings" for enums in Python, there are much better ways to do that sort of thing that preclude unnecessary bugs popping up.