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Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
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Description:
 def patch_traces( self, project_id, traces, retry=google.api_core.gapic_v1.method.DEFAULT, timeout=google.api_core.gapic_v1.method.DEFAULT, metadata=None, ):
 """ Sends new traces to Stackdriver Trace or updates existing traces. If the ID of a trace that you send matches that of an existing trace, any fields in the existing trace and its spans are overwritten by the provided values, and any new fields provided are merged with the existing trace data. If the ID does not match, a new trace is created. Example: Args: project_id (str):
 ID of the Cloud project where the trace data is stored. traces (Union[dict, ~google.cloud.trace_v1.types.Traces]):
 The body of the message. If a dict is provided, it must be of the same form as the protobuf message :class:`~google.cloud.trace_v1.types.Traces` retry (Optional[google.api_core.retry.Retry]):
 A retry object used to retry requests. If ``None`` is specified, requests will not be retried. timeout (Optional[float]):
 The amount of time, in seconds, to wait for the request to complete. Note that if ``retry`` is specified, the timeout applies to each individual attempt. metadata (Optional[Sequence[Tuple[str, str]]]):
 Additional metadata that is provided to the method. Raises: google.api_core.exceptions.GoogleAPICallError: If the request failed for any reason. google.api_core.exceptions.RetryError: If the request failed due to a retryable error and retry attempts failed. ValueError: If the parameters are invalid. """

        # Wrap the transport method to add retry and timeout logic.
        if "patch_traces" not in self._inner_api_calls:
            self._inner_api_calls[
                "patch_traces"
            ] = google.api_core.gapic_v1.method.wrap_method(
                self.transport.patch_traces,
                default_retry=self._method_configs["PatchTraces"].retry,
                default_timeout=self._method_configs["PatchTraces"].timeout,
                client_info=self._client_info,
            )

        request = trace_pb2.PatchTracesRequest(project_id=project_id, traces=traces)
        if metadata is None:
            metadata = []
        metadata = list(metadata)
        try:
            routing_header = [("project_id", project_id)]
        except AttributeError:
            pass
        else:
            routing_metadata = google.api_core.gapic_v1.routing_header.to_grpc_metadata(
                routing_header
            )
            metadata.append(routing_metadata)

        self._inner_api_calls["patch_traces"](
            request, retry=retry, timeout=timeout, metadata=metadata
        )