[Python-Dev] str with base

[Jeremy Hylton]

It never occured to me that str() would behave like int() for this
case.  It makes complete sense to me that a factory for numbers would
ask about the base of the number.  What would the base of a string be,
except in a few limited cases? str([1, 2], 4) doesn't make any sense. 
You might argue that I wasn't all that bright as a beginner <0.5
wink>.

I think it shouldn't be changed, because the second positional
argument only works for a small number of the panoply types that can
be passed to str().  It would be fine to have a function for this
hiding somewhere, perhaps even as a method on numbers, but str() is
too generic.

Jeremy

On 1/16/06, Alex Martelli <aleaxit at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is it finally time in Python 2.5 to allow the "obvious" use of, say,
> str(5,2) to give '101', just the converse of the way int('101',1)
> gives 5?  I'm not sure why str has never allowed this obvious use --
> any bright beginner assumes it's there and it's awkward to explain
> why it's not!-).  I'll be happy to propose a patch if the BDFL
> blesses this, but I don't even think it's worth a PEP... it's an
> inexplicable though long-standing omission (given the argumentative
> nature of this crowd I know I'll get pushback, but I still hope the
> BDFL can Pronounce about it anyway;-).
>
>
> Alex
>
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