[Python-Dev] LC_NUMERIC and C libraries (original) (raw)

Martin v. L�wis martin@v.loewis.de
18 Jul 2003 00:49:08 +0200

Christian Reis <kiko@async.com.br> writes:

The underlying truth is that locale-represented values will not be directly convertible to Python's C-locale values.

That is not true. locale.atof should allow you to parse the string.

I'm not sure this is correct. If it isn't I suggest two alternatives: offer an additional float() that does support LCNUMERIC (floatlocalized?), or change float() semantics.

I think this is unacceptable. In some languages, "." is used as the thousands-separator. Then, should "1.000" be 1e3, or 1e0?

There may be [broken] code that relies on float raising a TypeError if something like "50,00" is passed to it, however. Other than that it seems safe as a special-case.

That code is not broken: It is a feature that float() accepts exactly the same syntax that you use in source code; see the documentation for string.atof.

Regards, Martin