[ python-Bugs-935749 ] locale dependency of string methods undocumented

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Bugs item #935749, was opened at 2004-04-16 01:26
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Category: Documentation
Group: Python 2.3
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: George Yoshida (quiver)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: locale dependency of string methods undocumented

Initial Comment:
Some string methods/constants are locale dependent, 
but unlike string constants, string methods lack the 
description about the locale dependency.

This wasn't a big problem in older Python, but since 
Python 2.3 each time when you start up an IDLE, 
lib/idlelib/IOBinding.py sets the locale to LC_CTYPE:

  locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, "")

This affects the behavior of string methods and module
(at least on Windows when locale is set to 
('Japanese_Japan', 'cp932')).

Here is the result of locale-dependent 
constants/methods.

IDLE 1.0.2 # IDLE on Windows 2000  
>>> import string, locale
>>> string.letters
'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
wxyz\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1
\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9
\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6
\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3
\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf'
>>> _[-1].isalpha()
True
>>> locale.getlocale()
['Japanese_Japan', '932']

This *feature* can be easily reproduced from the 
command line.

Python 2.3.3 (#51, Dec 18 2003, 20:22:39) [MSC 
v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more 
information.
>>> import string, locale
>>> string.letters
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV
WXYZ'
>>> locale.getlocale()
(None, None)
>>> locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, '')
'Japanese_Japan.932'
>>> string.letters
'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
wxyz\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1
\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9
\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6
\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3
\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf'
>>> _[-1].isalnum()
True

Quote from msdn.microsoft.com:
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-
us/vclib/html/_crt_isalpha.2c_.iswalpha.asp

 The result of the test condition for the isalpha function 
depends on the LC_CTYPE category setting of the 
current locale; see setlocale for more information. 

string methods affected are:
* isalpha
* isalpnum

MS also says that some other string methods(islower, 
isdigit, etc.) are locale dependent, so it might be 
betterto add a note about the dependency to those 
methods too.

Thanks.

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