[Python-Dev] Semantics of __int__(), __index__()

[Barry Warsaw]

On Apr 04, 2013, at 01:14 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:

>Implementing __index__ just means "This type can be converted to a Python
>integer without losing information". Aside from that extra "without
>information loss" qualification, it's the same as __int__.

Hmm.

object.__index__(self)
    Called to implement operator.index(). Also called whenever Python needs an
    integer object (such as in slicing, or in the built-in bin(), hex() and
    oct() functions). Must return an integer.

operator.index(a)
operator.__index__(a)
    Return a converted to an integer. Equivalent to a.__index__().

bin(x)
    Convert an integer number to a binary string. The result is a valid Python
    expression. If x is not a Python int object, it has to define an
    __index__() method that returns an integer.

Certainly, in slicing an int subclass will work fine:

>>> class myint(int):
...    pass
... 
>>> range(10)[myint(2):myint(3)]
range(2, 3)

Same goes for hex/oct/bin:

>>> hex(myint(4))
'0x4'
>>> bin(myint(4))
'0b100'
>>> oct(myint(4))
'0o4'

Also, hex/oct/bin aren't types, they're functions, so this doesn't seem
equivalent to int or str for me.  The latter two are much more equivalent to
the built-in tuple, dict, and list types.

So I don't think there's any inconsistency in allowing int subclasses to be
returned from __index__(), and nothing should break, so I see no reason to
change the status quo here.

>>> class anint(int):
...   def __index__(self):
...     return myint(self)
... 
>>> from operator import index
>>> type(index(anint(7)))
<class '__main__.anint'>

Aside: It seems a bit odd to me that bin/hex/oct are defined to use
__index__() instead of __int__(), but that's probably not worth arguing
about.

Cheers,
-Barry
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