[Python-Dev] operator.is*Type

[Raymond Hettinger]

[Ian Bicking]
> They seem terribly pointless to me.

FWIW, here is the script that had I used while updating and improving the two 
functions (can't remember whether it was for Py2.3 or Py2.4).  It lists 
comparative results for many different types of inputs.  Since perfection was 
not possible, the goal was to have no false negatives and mostly accurate 
positives.  IMO, they do a pretty good job and are able to access information in 
not otherwise visable to pure Python code.  With respect to user defined 
instances, I don't care that they can't draw a distinction where none exists in 
the first place -- at some point you have to either fallback on duck-typing or 
be in control of what kind of arguments you submit to your functions. 
Practicality beats purity -- especially when a pure solution doesn't exist (i.e. 
given a user defined class that defines just __getitem__, both mapping or 
sequence behavior is a possibility).


---- Analysis Script ----

from collections import deque
from UserList import UserList
from UserDict import UserDict
from operator import *
types = (set,
         int, float, complex, long, bool,
         str, unicode,
         list, UserList, tuple, deque,
)

for t in types:
    print isMappingType(t()), isSequenceType(t()), repr(t()), repr(t)

class c:
    def __repr__(self):
        return 'Instance w/o getitem'

class cn(object):
    def __repr__(self):
        return 'NewStyle Instance w/o getitem'

class cg:
    def __repr__(self):
        return 'Instance w getitem'
    def __getitem__(self):
        return 10

class cng(object):
    def __repr__(self):
        return 'NewStyle Instance w getitem'
    def __getitem__(self):
        return 10

def f():
    return 1

def g():
    yield 1

for i in (None, NotImplemented, g(), c(), cn()):
    print isMappingType(i), isSequenceType(i), repr(i), type(i)

for i in (cg(), cng(), dict(), UserDict()):
    print isMappingType(i), isSequenceType(i), repr(i), type(i)



---- Output ----

False False set([]) <type 'set'>
False False 0 <type 'int'>
False False 0.0 <type 'float'>
False False 0j <type 'complex'>
False False 0L <type 'long'>
False False False <type 'bool'>
False True '' <type 'str'>
False True u'' <type 'unicode'>
False True [] <type 'list'>
True True [] <class UserList.UserList at 0x00F11B70>
False True () <type 'tuple'>
False True deque([]) <type 'collections.deque'>
False False None <type 'NoneType'>
False False NotImplemented <type 'NotImplementedType'>
False False <generator object at 0x00F230A8> <type 'generator'>
False False Instance w/o getitem <type 'instance'>
False False NewStyle Instance w/o getitem <class '__main__.cn'>
True True Instance w getitem <type 'instance'>
True True NewStyle Instance w getitem <class '__main__.cng'>
True False {} <type 'dict'>
True True {} <type 'instance'>