This pattern seems to work: import sys
if sys.version_info[0] < 3: raise RuntimeError("Must use at least python version 3") # The 'typing' module, useful for type hints, was introduced in python 3.5 if sys.version_info[1] >= 5: from typing import Optional optional_float = Optional[float] else: optional_float = object def divider(x: int, y: int) -> optional_float: if y == 0: return None return x / y print("3 / 0 = " + str(divider(3,0))) print("22 / 7 = " + str(divider(22,7))) -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list