14.5. Google Style Docstrings

The original reStructuredText style to define parameters with :param name: becomes a bit unreadable in plain text form. To make sure that the documentation is human readable also in plain text we recommend using Google style docstrings. Simply put, instead of writing

:param type1 name1: description 1
:param name2: description 2
:returns: return value description

you should write

Parameters:
  name1 (type1): description 1
  name2: description 2

Returns:
  return value description

The known sections you can and should use if appropriate are

• Attributes

• Example

• Examples

• Keyword Arguments

• Methods

• Note

• Other Parameters

• Parameters

• Returns

• Raises

• References

• See Also

• Todo

• Warning

• Warns

• Yields

You can see a more complete example of this format at http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/ext/example_google.html