[Python-Dev] complex I/O problem

[A.M. Kuchling]

On Tue, Feb 01, 2005 at 11:11:37AM -0500, Neal Becker wrote:
> complex ('(2+2j)')
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> ValueError: complex() arg is a malformed string
> 
> Whatever format is used for output should be accepted as input!

This isn't true in general; it's not true of strings, for example, nor
of files.  Parsing complex numbers would be pretty complicated,
because it would have to accept '(2+2j)', '2+2j', '3e-6j', and perhaps
even '4j+3'.  It seems easier to just use eval() than to make
complex() implement an entire mini-parser.

--amk