From the PEP8 Style Guide:
PEP 257 describes good docstring conventions. Note that most importantly, the """ that ends a multiline docstring should be on a line by itself, e.g.:
"""Return a foobang Optional plotz says to frobnicate the bizbaz first. """
For one liner docstrings, it's okay to keep the closing """ on the same line.
PEP 257 recommends using triple quotes, even for one-line docstrings:
- Triple quotes are used even though the string fits on one line. This makes it easy to later expand it.
Note that not even the Python standard library itself follows these recommendations consistently. For example,