[Python-Dev] Change in repr of Decimal in 2.6 (original) (raw)

Raymond Hettinger python at rcn.com
Sat Jul 19 05:19:05 CEST 2008

From: Karen Tracey

I noticed when trying out Python's 2.6b2 release that the repr of Decimal has changed since 2.5. On 2.5: ... quotes were used whereas on 2.6b2: ... single quotes are used. Searching around I see this was done in r60773 with the log message: Fix decimal repr which should have used single quotes like other reprs.

but I can't find any discussion other than that.

Guido requested this change so that the Decimal repr would match the style used elsewhere (i.e. str(7) --> '7').

If it's here to stay, is there some straightforward way that I am unaware of to construct tests that use Decimal repr but will work correctly on Python 2.3-2.6?

A quick hack is to monkey patch the decimal module:

>>> import decimal
>>> decimal.Decimal.__repr__ = lambda s: 'Decimal("%s")' % str(s)

A better fix is to amend to doctests to not rely on the repr format. Instead of:

Decimal('7.1') Decimal("7.1")

use:

print Decimal('7.1') 7.1

Raymond

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