[Python-Dev] PEP 435 -- Adding an Enum type to the Python standard library (original) (raw)

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Sat Apr 13 04:51:43 CEST 2013

On 13/04/13 10:13, Glenn Linderman wrote:

can't define two names in the same enum to have the same value, per the PEP.

I think that's too strong a restriction. I would expect to be able to do this:

class Insect(Enum): wsap = 1 # Oops, needed for backward compatibility, do not remove. wasp = 1 # Preferred. Use this in new code. bee = 2 ant = 3

Or at the very least:

class Insect(Enum): wasp = wsap = 1 bee = 2 ant = 3

I googled on "C enum" and the very first hit includes a duplicate value:

And two examples from asm-generic/errno.h:

#define EWOULDBLOCK EAGAIN /* Operation would block */ #define EDEADLOCK EDEADLK

What's the justification for this restriction? I have looked in the PEP, and didn't see one.

-- Steven