'complex' function with string argument.

[Mark Dickinson]

Jayanth Koushik <jnkoushik <at> gmail.com> writes:

> "Note: When converting from a string, the string must not contain whitespace
> around the central + or - operator. For example, complex('1+2j') is fine, but
> complex('1 + 2j') raises ValueError."
> 
> Why is this so?

See http://bugs.python.org/issue9574 for a bit more context.  To begin with,
it's not at all clear what *should* be allowed.  If "1 + 2j" is valid, what
about "+ 2j"?  How about "+ 2"?  What about things like "+1.0 + -2.3j"?
Ultimately, I closed that issue because the proposed change seemed like
unnecessary code churn, and there wasn't a clear consensus that the change was
desirable (or even what that change should be).  If it ain't broke, etc.

-- 
Mark