[Python-Dev] Should hex() yield 'L' suffix for long numbers?

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Mon Jun 12 18:57:03 CEST 2006


Here's how I interpret PEP 237. Some changes to hex() and oct() are
warned about in B1and to be implemented in B2. But I'm pretty sure
that was about the treatment of negative numbers, not about the
trailing 'L'. I believe the PEP authors overlooked the trailing 'L'
for hex() and oct(). I think they should be considered just as sticky
as the trailing 'L' for repr().

--Guido

On 6/11/06, Tim Peters <tim.peters at gmail.com> wrote:
> [Ka-Ping Yee]
> > I did this earlier:
> >
> >     >>> hex(9999999999999)
> >     '0x9184e729fffL'
> >
> > and found it a little jarring, because i feel there's been a general
> > trend toward getting rid of the 'L' suffix in Python.
> >
> > Literal long integers don't need an L anymore; they're automatically
> > made into longs if the number is too big.  And while the repr() of
> > a long retains the L on the end, the str() of a long does not, and
> > i rather like that.
> >
> > So i kind of expected that hex() would not include the L either.
> > I see its main job as just giving me the hex digits (in fact, for
> > Python 3000 i'd prefer even to drop the '0x' as well), and the L
> > seems superfluous and distracting.
> >
> > What do you think?  Is Python 2.5 a reasonable time to drop this L?
>
> As I read pep 237, that should have happened in Python 2.3 or 2.4.
> This specific case is kinda muddy there.  Regardless, the only part
> that was left for Python 3 was "phase C", and this is phase C in its
> entirety:
>
>  C. The trailing 'L' is dropped from repr(), and made illegal on
>        input.  (If possible, the 'long' type completely disappears.)
>
> It's possible, though, that hex() and oct() were implicitly considered
> to be variants of repr() for purposes of phase C.  How much are we
> willing to pay Guido to Pronounce?
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-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)


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