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[Python-ideas] Different bases format specification

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Sat Dec 3 02:31:37 CET 2011 
On Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 10:12 AM, T.B. <bauertomer at gmail.com> wrote:
> I suggest using the precision field in the format specification for integers
> for that.

Supporting arbitrary bases for string formatting has been discussed
and rejected in the past (both in the context of PEP 3101's
introduction of new string formatting and on other occasions).

Nobody has ever produced convincing use cases for natively supporting
formatting with bases other than binary, octal, decimal and
hexadecimal. Accordingly, those 4 are supported explicitly via the
'b', 'o', 'd' and 'x'/'X' formatting codes, while other formats still
require an explicit conversion function.

As for "Why Not?"

1. 'd' stands for decimal. If support for arbitrary bases were added,
it would need to be as a separate format code (e.g. 'i' for integer)

2. The explicit 'b', 'o' and 'x' codes are related to integer literal
notation (0b10, 0o777, 0x1F), not to the second argument to int()

3. The use cases just aren't that strong. When you start dealing with
base36 and base64, you're not talking about formatting numbers for
human readers any more, you're talking about encoding numbers as short
pieces of text. Better to let people decide exactly the behaviour they
want by coding it themselves.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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