[Python-Dev] basenumber redux (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Wed Jan 18 00:21:13 CET 2006

Alex Martelli wrote:

But this doesn't apply to the Python Standard Library, for example see line 1348 of imaplib.py: "if isinstance(datetime, (int, float)):". [...] Being able to change imaplib to use basenumber instead of (int, float) won't make it SIMPLER, but it will surely make it BETTER -- why should a long be rejected, or a Decimal, for that matter?

Right. I think this function should read

if isinstance(date_time, str) and
(date_time[0],date_time[-1]) == ('"','"'): return date_time # Assume in correct format

if isinstance(date_time, (tuple, time.struct_time)): tt = date_time else: tt = time.localtime(date_time)

If this is something that time.localtime can't handle, it will give a TypeError. This is much better than

raise ValueError("date_time not of a known type")
# (why does it raise a ValueError if it says "type"?)

Regards, Martin

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