Division oddity

[Andrew Clover]

Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote:

> So, the way to get eval() to respond to the import is to pass along
> the current environment:

> >>> from __future__ import division
> >>> eval('9/2', globals())
> 4.5

You can also put a future-import in the string, allowing you to run code
with features not known until run-time (and without affecting the host
script). Of course the catch is that import is a statement, not an
expression, so you have to do it with 'exec', eg.:

  expr= '9/2'
  features= 'division'
  scope= {}
  exec 'from __future__ import %s\n__assign= (%s)'%(features,expr) in scope
  print scope['__assign']

  4.5

What you then *can't* do is have a future-import in the host script without
it affecting the script in the exec block.

Python 2.2+ has a much nicer way of doing it involving passing flags to the
'compile' function, which is preferable if you don't need backwards
compatibility.

Anyway, straying from the original point here.