PEP: Generalised String Coercion

Sat Aug 6 06:23:42 EDT 2005

The title is perhaps a little too grandiose but it's the best I
could think of.  The change is really not large.  Personally, I
would be happy enough if only %s was changed and the built-in was
not added.  Please comment.

  Neil

PEP: 349
Title: Generalised String Coercion
Version: $Revision: 1.2 $
Last-Modified: $Date: 2005/08/06 04:05:48 $
Author: Neil Schemenauer <nas at arctrix.com>
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/plain
Created: 02-Aug-2005
Post-History: 06-Aug-2005
Python-Version: 2.5

Abstract

    This PEP proposes the introduction of a new built-in function,
    text(), that provides a way of generating a string representation
    of an object without forcing the result to be a particular string
    type.  In addition, the behavior %s format specifier would be
    changed to call text() on the argument.  These two changes would
    make it easier to write library code that can be used by
    applications that use only the str type and by others that also
    use the unicode type.

Rationale

    Python has had a Unicode string type for some time now but use of
    it is not yet widespread.  There is a large amount of Python code
    that assumes that string data is represented as str instances.
    The long term plan for Python is to phase out the str type and use
    unicode for all string data.  Clearly, a smooth migration path
    must be provided.

    We need to upgrade existing libraries, written for str instances,
    to be made capable of operating in an all-unicode string world.
    We can't change to an all-unicode world until all essential
    libraries are made capable for it.  Upgrading the libraries in one
    shot does not seem feasible.  A more realistic strategy is to
    individually make the libraries capable of operating on unicode
    strings while preserving their current all-str environment
    behaviour.

    First, we need to be able to write code that can accept unicode
    instances without attempting to coerce them to str instances.  Let
    us label such code as Unicode-safe.  Unicode-safe libraries can be
    used in an all-unicode world.

    Second, we need to be able to write code that, when provided only
    str instances, will not create unicode results.  Let us label such
    code as str-stable.  Libraries that are str-stable can be used by
    libraries and applications that are not yet Unicode-safe.

    Sometimes it is simple to write code that is both str-stable and
    Unicode-safe.  For example, the following function just works:

        def appendx(s):
            return s + 'x'

    That's not too surprising since the unicode type is designed to
    make the task easier.  The principle is that when str and unicode
    instances meet, the result is a unicode instance.  One notable
    difficulty arises when code requires a string representation of an
    object; an operation traditionally accomplished by using the str()
    built-in function.

    Using str() makes the code not Unicode-safe.  Replacing a str()
    call with a unicode() call makes the code not str-stable.  Using a
    string format almost accomplishes the goal but not quite.
    Consider the following code:

        def text(obj):
            return '%s' % obj

    It behaves as desired except if 'obj' is not a basestring instance
    and needs to return a Unicode representation of itself.  In that
    case, the string format will attempt to coerce the result of
    __str__ to a str instance.  Defining a __unicode__ method does not
    help since it will only be called if the right-hand operand is a
    unicode instance.  Using a unicode instance for the right-hand
    operand does not work because the function is no longer str-stable
    (i.e. it will coerce everything to unicode).

Specification

    A Python implementation of the text() built-in follows:

        def text(s):
            """Return a nice string representation of the object.  The
            return value is a basestring instance.
            """
            if isinstance(s, basestring):
                return s
            r = s.__str__()
            if not isinstance(r, basestring):
                raise TypeError('__str__ returned non-string')
            return r

    Note that it is currently possible, although not very useful, to
    write __str__ methods that return unicode instances.

    The %s format specifier for str objects would be changed to call
    text() on the argument.  Currently it calls str() unless the
    argument is a unicode instance (in which case the object is
    substituted as is and the % operation returns a unicode instance).

    The following function would be added to the C API and would be the
    equivalent of the text() function:

        PyObject *PyObject_Text(PyObject *o);

    A reference implementation is available on Sourceforge [1] as a
    patch.

Backwards Compatibility

    The change to the %s format specifier would result in some %
    operations returning a unicode instance rather than raising a
    UnicodeDecodeError exception.  It seems unlikely that the change
    would break currently working code.

Alternative Solutions

    Rather than adding the text() built-in, if PEP 246 were
    implemented then adapt(s, basestring) could be equivalent to
    text(s).  The advantage would be one less built-in function.  The
    problem is that PEP 246 is not implemented.

    Fredrik Lundh has suggested [2] that perhaps a new slot should be
    added (e.g. __text__), that could return any kind of string that's
    compatible with Python's text model.  That seems like an
    attractive idea but many details would still need to be worked
    out.

    Instead of providing the text() built-in, the %s format specifier
    could be changed and a string format could be used instead of
    calling text().  However, it seems like the operation is important
    enough to justify a built-in.

    Instead of providing the text() built-in, the basestring type
    could be changed to provide the same functionality.  That would
    possibly be confusing behaviour for an abstract base type.

    Some people have suggested [3] that an easier migration path would
    be to change the default encoding to be UTF-8.  Code that is not
    Unicode safe would then encode Unicode strings as UTF-8 and
    operate on them as str instances, rather than raising a
    UnicodeDecodeError exception.  Other code would assume that str
    instances were encoded using UTF-8 and decode them if necessary.
    While that solution may work for some applications, it seems
    unsuitable as a general solution.  For example, some applications
    get string data from many different sources and assuming that all
    str instances were encoded using UTF-8 could easily introduce
    subtle bugs.

References

    [1] http://www.python.org/sf/1159501
    [2] http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2004-September/048755.html
    [3] http://blog.ianbicking.org/illusive-setdefaultencoding.html

Copyright

    This document has been placed in the public domain.

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