[Python-Dev] str with base

[Guido van Rossum]

On 1/17/06, Bob Ippolito <bob at redivi.com> wrote:
> There shouldn't be a %B for the same reason there isn't an %O or %D
> -- they're all just digits, so there's not a need for an uppercase
> variant.

Right.

> The difference between hex() and oct() and the proposed binary() is

I'd propose bin() to stay in line with the short abbreviated names.

> that hex() and oct() return valid Python expressions in that base.
> In order for it to make sense, Python would need to grow some syntax.

Fair enough. So let's define it.

> If Python were to have syntax for binary literals, I'd propose a
> trailing b: "1100b".  It would be convenient at times to represent
> bit flags, but I'm not sure it's worth the syntax change.

Typically, suffixes are used to indicated *types*: 12L, 12j, and even
12e0 in some sense.

The binary type should have a 0b prefix.

Perhaps this could be implemented at the PyCon sprint?

--
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)