transpile: narrow the return type depending on the circuits argument (#…

…9799)

* transpile: narrow the return type depending on the circuits argument

* Fixup release note

---------

Co-authored-by: Jake Lishman <jake.lishman@ibm.com>

qiskit/compiler/transpiler.py

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 import pickle
 import sys
 from time import time
-from typing import List, Union, Dict, Callable, Any, Optional, Tuple, Iterable
+from typing import List, Union, Dict, Callable, Any, Optional, Tuple, Iterable, TypeVar
 import warnings
 
 from qiskit import user_config
@@ -57,9 +57,11 @@
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+_CircuitT = TypeVar("_CircuitT", bound=Union[QuantumCircuit, List[QuantumCircuit]])
+
 
 def transpile(
- circuits: Union[QuantumCircuit, List[QuantumCircuit]],
+ circuits: _CircuitT,
  backend: Optional[Backend] = None,
  basis_gates: Optional[List[str]] = None,
  inst_map: Optional[List[InstructionScheduleMap]] = None,
@@ -79,13 +81,13 @@ def transpile(
  callback: Optional[Callable[[BasePass, DAGCircuit, float, PropertySet, int], Any]] = None,
  output_name: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None,
  unitary_synthesis_method: str = "default",
- unitary_synthesis_plugin_config: dict = None,
- target: Target = None,
+ unitary_synthesis_plugin_config: Optional[dict] = None,
+ target: Optional[Target] = None,
  hls_config: Optional[HLSConfig] = None,
- init_method: str = None,
- optimization_method: str = None,
+ init_method: Optional[str] = None,
+ optimization_method: Optional[str] = None,
  ignore_backend_supplied_default_methods: bool = False,
-) -> Union[QuantumCircuit, List[QuantumCircuit]]:
+) -> _CircuitT:
  """Transpile one or more circuits, according to some desired transpilation targets.
 
  .. deprecated:: 0.23.0

releasenotes/notes/improve-transpile-typing-de1197f4dd13ac0c.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+fixes:
+ - |
+ Improved the typing annotations on the top-level :func:`.transpile` function.
+ The return type is now narrowed correctly depending on whether a
+ single circuit or a list of circuit was passed.